Ahead of Saturday’s Federal Capital Territory council elections, youth groups in Abuja staged a peaceful march to the Federal Capital Territory Administration, calling for accountability and open budgeting by incoming Area Council chairmen.
The demonstration saw hundreds of youths walk from the Federal Secretariat to the FCTA headquarters, carrying placards reading: “Functional local governments, better communities” and “Local governments/Area Councils central to the provision of essential services, including primary healthcare, basic education, environmental sanitation and community infrastructure.”
Calls for Accountability and Autonomy
Led by Emmanuel Obiabo, the youth organisers stressed that Area Councils in the FCT should function as models for all 774 local government areas nationwide. They lamented that the Supreme Court ruling granting full local government autonomy has not been effectively implemented in many states.
Obiabo said:
“Local government leaders must adopt open budgeting. While they have rights to allocations and administration, they have a duty to ensure accountable and transparent financial management.”
He added that tracking of local government funding is ongoing through social media platforms, but information on actual spending remains largely unavailable.
Charter of Demands
The youths presented a charter of demands to the Mandate Secretary, Area Council Services Secretariat, FCTA, calling for:
- Financial transparency and public accountability
- Efficient, responsive, and professional administration
- Community participation and stakeholder engagement
- Mandatory public disclosure of budgets, allocations, expenditures, and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)
- Completion of outstanding community development projects
- Routine maintenance of roads, markets, waste management systems, and public facilities, particularly in AMAC, Bwari, Kuje, and Gwagwalada
- Strengthened primary healthcare and basic education across all Area Councils
Obiabo emphasised that the local government is the “third tier of government and closest to the people,” and that effective governance at this level is critical to national development.
“As long as these problems persist, our advocacy will continue,” he said, underlining the youths’ determination to monitor and influence the allocation and use of local government resources.
