A civil society organisation, the Lygel Youths & Leadership Initiative, has called on the Ogun State Government to address what it describes as a pattern of governance gaps affecting local government administration, public procurement transparency, healthcare delivery, and border town development across the state.
The group’s Executive Director, Lekan Oladapo, made the call at a press briefing held in Abeokuta, urging the administration of Governor Dapo Abiodun to use its remaining tenure to address what he termed “foundational governance deficits” ahead of the end of the administration’s current term.
At the heart of the group’s concerns is the administration of statutory allocations to Ogun State’s 20 local government areas.
Oladapo referenced a 2023 petition by the then-Chairman of Ijebu East Local Government, Hon. Wale Adedayo, in which the council chairman alleged that federal allocations and ecological funds meant for local governments in the state were being withheld by the state government. The state government had at the time denied the allegations.
The civil society group argued, however, that observable conditions across local government areas including the inability of councils to carry out routine functions such as road grading and primary healthcare centre maintenance without state executive intervention suggested that LGAs had continued to operate with severely constrained resources.
“The Supreme Court has been clear on the financial autonomy of local governments,” Oladapo said. “What we are seeing on the ground in Ogun State raises genuine questions about compliance with that ruling.”
The Federal Government, under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has made the financial independence of local governments a stated policy priority. The group said it believed the situation in Ogun State ran counter to that national policy direction.
The group also raised concerns about what it described as insufficient public access to information on state procurement processes.
Citing an April 2026 Freedom of Information request filed by civil society group Right Thinkers Global Initiative (Eagleping) seeking details on a ₦1.39 billion New Ogun State House of Assembly Complex project, Lygel Youths & Leadership Initiative questioned why basic procurement information, including contractor identities, project scope, and funding structures was not proactively made available to the public.
“Public procurement should be transparent by default, not by litigation,” Oladapo said, calling on the state government to establish and maintain a publicly accessible procurement portal.
The group drew attention to what it described as a missed economic opportunity in Ogun State’s border communities with Lagos State.
Noting that communities such as Akute, Denro, and Ishasi, as well as the Agbara-Atan-Lusada industrial corridor which hosts a significant concentration of manufacturing facilities, had experienced prolonged infrastructure deficits, the group argued that the state lacked a coherent development strategy for its border towns.
The group acknowledged that federal infrastructure projects, including work related to the Sokoto-Badagry corridor, had begun to address some access issues in late 2025 and into 2026, but said the state’s own strategic contribution to border town development had been inadequate.
“Ogun’s proximity to Lagos is its single greatest economic asset,” Oladapo said. “The absence of a Border Town Development Plan means that investment that should be landing in Ogun is going elsewhere.”
On healthcare, the group challenged the administration to point to a single major public hospital constructed from the ground up during its tenure, stating that the majority of health infrastructure activity in the state had been limited to renovation of existing facilities.
The group cited figures from a late 2023 government disclosure in which the administration indicated that approximately 42 of the state’s 530-plus Primary Healthcare Centres had been renovated, a figure the group noted represented less than 10 per cent of the total.
It linked the broader PHC funding challenge directly to the local government allocation question, noting that primary healthcare is constitutionally the responsibility of local government councils, which it argued had been unable to fund routine maintenance due to constrained allocations.
The group said General Hospitals the direct responsibility of the state government, faced challenges including understaffing and a lack of modern diagnostic equipment.
Lygel Youths & Leadership Initiative concluded its statement by calling on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission to make public any findings from investigations into allegations of diverted local government funds and procurement irregularities in the state.
“We are not making accusations,” Oladapo said. “We are asking that the relevant agencies, if they have conducted or are conducting investigations into matters of public concern in Ogun State, share their findings with Nigerians. Transparency is not optional in a democracy.”
Civil Society Group Raises Governance Concerns, Calls for Transparency, LG Reform
