Northern governors must look in the mirror (I)

One of the profoundest changes to have happened in Nigerian governance in recent years is the increase in monthly federal allocations going to the states and local governments. Yet, as to what northern governors have done with their increased revenues the truth will stare all of us in the face because there is nothing much […]

One of the profoundest changes to have happened in Nigerian governance in recent years is the increase in monthly federal allocations going to the states and local governments. Yet, as to what northern governors have done with their increased revenues the truth will stare all of us in the face because there is nothing much to show for it across the region.

There is no doubt that revenues accruing to all three tiers of government from the Federal Account Allocations Committee (FAAC) have increased sharply over the past few years, and are still on the upward trend. In 2022, for example, the FAAC disbursed a total of N3.16 trillion to all 36 states, according to a March 2023 report by the online business platform, Nariametrics. For the 11-month period of January to November 2025, FAAC disbursements to the states totalled N6.73 trillion, according to The Nation newspaper, and an additional N601.731 billion for the month of December 2025, according to a report by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), making a total of about N7.3 trillion total FAAC disbursements for 2025, or more than double the N3.16 trillion allocations received for 2022.

Of course, these disbursements are for all the 36 states, and the oil-producing states of the Niger Delta generally receive the lion’s share of the disbursements, while northern and south eastern states tend to receive the lowest. However, the more important fact is that federal allocations for all the states have more than doubled, and in many instances, have multiplied several times since 2023, compared to what they were before then. Moreover, two or three northern states tend to feature in the list of top 10 states with the most federal allocations.

In 2022, for example, Kano State received a total disbursement of N96.3 billion. Last year, it received a net FAAC allocation totalling N270.86 billion or an average of N22.5 billion monthly across the entire year, according to The Nation newspaper. In other words, Kano state received nearly three times in 2025 the amount it received in 2022. But Kano is just a single example, and in terms of population, an outlier among the northern states.

Still, the general fact of significantly increased revenues, and even increasing annually, applies to all 19 northern states, as it does to all the states across the country. For example, the six states that received the lowest FAAC allocations last year included three northern states, namely, Nasarawa (N113.22 billion), Kogi (N114.27 billion) and Taraba (N115.03 billion). This means that, the lowest earning northern states now receive, on average, about N10 billion monthly, and higher for many states. Five years ago, and for years before then, it was barely N3-5 billion per month for most states.

All of this does not even include allocations to the local governments, which governors tend to corner in the name of an unconstitutional arrangement called “Joint Accounts” system. By most estimates, most local governments in Nigeria today are due, on average, N600 million from FAAC allocations per month, which state governors also collect for the number of local governments in their states, which are generally higher per state in the north.

In short, there is no doubt that Northern governors today are presiding over the highest levels of federal allocations in Nigeria’s history. Yet across much of the region, the lived reality of citizens shows little structural transformation, either in terms of the security of life and property or in terms of jobs, incomes and public services like education, health, and others. It is about time we raised the important question of what northern governors, individually and collectively, are doing with their increased monthly federal allocations. If revenues have increased two, three or more times monthly today over and above what they were in previous years, where are the improved changes in better governance or service delivery?

The federal government, under the Tinubu administration, we must acknowledge, has done much to increase the revenue allocations to all the states. We must give credit where it is due. The question of what to do with the revenues, however, is not in the hands of the federal government or President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. That is a responsibility of the governors, individually, and collectively, and unfortunately, that is where there is a clear missing link in using increased fiscal allocations for improved governance and better service delivery to the people across all the states in the north particularly.

More importantly, we must all remember that the fiscal reforms that have led to these increased revenues have also come with a lot of pain for millions of people, particularly in the northern region. This means that how these revenues are spent is not a matter for the governors alone, and that people need to feel the positive changes of the new revenues in their own daily lives.

The main problem, for me, is the severe lack of vision or ambition among the current cohort of northern governors in Nigeria today, and possibly since 2015, with only a few exceptions. For the present purposes, let me identify three areas where this lack of vision and ambition is most acute in northern leadership today. The first is a lack of awareness of what the governors can achieve collectively as a unit. For all the structural divisions into 19 states or three geopolitical zones, northern Nigeria is still largely one place, one people, and one economy.

Agriculture, trade and small-time artisanship are still the dominant economic activities throughout the region. The problems of infrastructure, education, health, youth and women unemployment, and industrial and manufacturing development are so similar as to be more or less the same throughout the region. The seasonal or daily movement of people from one part of the region to another is frequent, persistent, and seamless economically and socio-culturally. This is why, unfortunately, bandits, kidnappers, drug-peddlers, and other criminals criss-cross from one state to another with so much ease, often, in a single day.

All of this calls for concerted effort and leadership because no single state can go it alone, even within its own domain. But together, they can do much more. Consider, for example, in the current climate of increased revenues, if all 19 northern states agree to contribute N2 billion naira monthly from their increased revenues for a year. That would yield a total of N456 billion a year, and more if the larger states contribute a little more. You can then approach the federal government to borrow you three or four times that amount, or be your guarantor to borrow from banks. In a single year, the region, collectively will have about N1.5 trillion.

That is about $1 billion. With that kind of money, you could establish two or three state-owned but privately managed and governed big businesses in sectors that generate high returns or large numbers of jobs. You could have a Northern Line mega transport company, with say 200 units of vehicles in its fleet to cover the entire country on a daily basis. You could also establish a Fintech company like Opay or Moniepoint, a sector where northern representation is zero. You could establish a local Keke NAPEP producing company at Kofar Mata in Kano, and produce the very things we so much love to consume. You could establish a giant construction firm to build roads and low-cost housing, and compete effectively and favourably with the Chinese CCECC for most of the road projects, across many states of the north today.

Indeed, with that kind of money, you can have all of these combined. The multiplier effects of having three or four big businesses in the northern region will change the narrative of this region entirely, and that is just one thing that can be achieved with serious collective leadership. And we are only starting with our analysis.