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Former Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has fired a direct shot at Nigeria’s 36 state governors, urging them to immediately release federal allocations meant for local government areas and end the practice of suffocating grassroots development.
Speaking on Tuesday at the One Nigeria Project Conference in Abuja, Senator Ortom insisted that local governments remain the real engine room of progress in security, agriculture, education, healthcare, and basic infrastructure. “True development starts from the wards and villages,” he said. “Anything short of that is just cosmetics in the state capitals.”
The two-term governor reminded his colleagues of the Supreme Court’s recent landmark ruling that granted financial autonomy to the 774 local government councils across the country, declaring it unlawful for state governments to retain or control LG funds through joint accounts. He described the monthly federal allocations as “consistent and sufficient” to spark visible change if they reach the intended beneficiaries without diversion or delay.
Ortom’s voice adds weight to a growing national chorus. Citizens, civil society groups, and even some serving governors have accused many state chief executives of deliberately frustrating the Supreme Court judgment by creating new bottlenecks, from imposing caretaker committees to withholding statutory releases under various pretexts.
In a pointed appeal, the former governor called on serving and past local government chairmen to bury political differences and work as a united front. “Whether you served yesterday or you are serving today, the people you represent are the same. Let us put ego and party loyalty aside and push for what is right,” he urged.
He warned that Nigeria’s deepening security crisis, rural poverty, and collapsing primary education and healthcare systems cannot be meaningfully tackled from gubernatorial lodges and state assemblies alone. “Our current challenges can only be solved through a united, functional, and fully empowered local government system,” Ortom declared, adding that governors who continue to hold back LG funds are indirectly sabotaging their own states and the country.
As the conference ended, the message from the Benue North-West senator was unambiguous: do the needful, release the funds, and let the third tier of government breathe. Whether the 36 governors are listening remains to be seen, but voices like Ortom’s are making sure the conversation stays loud and impossible to ignore.
