Abstract

Nigeria operates a monolithic-economy that is dependent on oil and the proceeds are distributed among the federal, state and local governments. Local governments have a 20.6 percent share from the national pool which is made available through the State Joint Local Government Account created by Section 162 (6,7and 8) of the 1999 Constitution. The Section was created on the premise that statutory allocation to the council be made available in bulk and as such go to a pool where the affected councils can share the amount due them. This is expected to facilitate financial independence. However, state governors came up with committee called Joint Allocation Account Committee to execute this task. This laudable objective was not maximally achieved. The study therefore examined the effect of Joint Allocation Account Committee (JAAC) on the autonomy of local government in Ogun State, Nigeria between 1999 and 2012. All 20 twenty local governments in Ogun State constituted the study population. Purposive sampling techniques was used to select six local governments, two each (one urban and one rural) from the three senatorial districts. Unstructured interviews were conducted with previous and present permanent secretaries, heads of local government administration, directors of general services and administration and politicians. Secondary data were collected from relevant literature and were content analysed. The account has not been of expected benefit to the local government. According to the respondents interviewed, this account has been abused by the state governors at the expense of the councils. The state government through the JAAC consistently delayed and sometime starved the councils of its statutory allocation. This has affected infrastructural development in these councils and the need and aspiration of the masses were hadly met. The public servant salaries were delayed for months. Also, documentary data showed that there is a general opinion that the committee be scrapped, and local funs allotted directly the councils. The study concluded that local governments in Ogun State in particular and Nigeria generally were financially unstable. In this regard, Section 162 (6, 7 and 8) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria stablished State Joint Local Government Account also known as JAAC should be scrapped, to give councils direct access to the federal statutory allocations. Illegal deductions from the local government funds by any governor should attract impeachable offence and should be tried corruption offence.