Local Government Loot: Imo’s billion-naira question

Listening to the revelations by the House of Representatives member for Ideato, one question refuses to go away: what exactly is Governor Hope Uzodinma doing with Imo’s local government funds?

Month after month, hundreds of millions pour into the coffers of each of Imo’s 27 LGAs from the Federation Account. The Honourable member revealed that for the past eight months, no LGA in Imo has received less than ₦300 million — with many, like Ideato North and South combined, topping ₦800 million to ₦1 billion monthly. And yet, drive through these local councils and you will find squalor, broken schools without desks, health centres without staff, roads in ruin, and communities taxing themselves to pay vigilantes.

This is not a minor discrepancy. It is a full-blown governance scandal.

If the federal government suddenly seized state allocations and dictated how governors should spend them, there would be outrage. So why is the Imo State Government allowed to starve LGAs of their statutory funds in violation of both the constitution and common sense? The law is clear — local governments are meant to receive their allocations directly and apply them to grassroots development.

Instead, the money disappears into a black hole in Owerri, only for LGAs to be handed crumbs that cannot even pay council workers or buy ceiling boards for dilapidated offices. Over the last few years, Ideato alone should have received over ₦20 billion. The result? Markets burn without rehabilitation, teachers go unpaid and demoralised, and science labs remain fantasies.

The Government’s Dangerous Distraction

Rather than address these damning revelations with facts and figures, the Uzodinma administration has chosen a path of intimidation. In an extraordinary descent into political thuggery, the Commissioner for Information, Declan Emelumba, issued not one but two press statements in 48 hours — the latest titled “What Chima Amadi Should Know.”

The statement drips with threats and even dares to resurrect the long-dead colonial-era offence of sedition as a weapon against lawful criticism. For the record, sedition was struck down decades ago in Arthur Nwankwo v. The State (1985) as incompatible with the constitution’s guarantee of free expression. To cite it in 2025 is to admit a preference for military-era authoritarianism over democratic accountability.

A confident government meets accusations with evidence, not with obsolete legal bludgeons.

Missing the Point — and the Billions

Let us be clear: Dr. Chima Matthew Amadi’s speech at the Catholic Men Organisation seminar was not sedition. It was a constitutional exercise of free speech, backed by the lived reality of millions of Imo citizens who see no benefit from the billions allocated to their LGAs.

If the state government insists every kobo is spent as intended, then:

– Publish LGA-by-LGA FAAC receipts from 2019 to date.

– Release audited expenditure reports signed by each LGA treasurer.

– Provide a project-by-project breakdown of how these funds were applied.

Anything less is an admission of guilt.

On Health and Human Dignity

The administration’s attempt to deflect criticism by dismissing maternal mortality statistics is equally hollow. If the official figure is indeed 163 deaths per 100,000 live births, then publish the source, methodology, and year-by-year breakdown — and allow unannounced inspections of primary health centres. This is about lives, not political point-scoring.

The Billion-Naira Question Remains

From 2019 to today, the scale of LGA allocations in Imo is staggering. In Ideato alone, the sums over the last few years could have transformed schools, paved roads, revitalised healthcare, and created jobs. Instead, communities are paying for their own vigilantes and repairing their own markets while the state government hoards their funds.

This is not just maladministration. It is a direct assault on democracy, local autonomy, and the constitutional right of citizens to benefit from their resources.

The Bottom Line

Invoking sedition to silence demands for transparency will not work. Imo people are not afraid of dead laws. What they want — and are entitled to — is proof that their money is not being stolen. If the Uzodinma administration truly has nothing to hide, it should open its books and let the figures speak for themselves.

Until then, the billion-naira question will remain: Governor Uzodinma, where is the money?

Okechukwu Nwanguma

Executive Director, RULAAC