From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna
Local Government Councils across all 23 LGAs in Kaduna State have kicked off town hall consultations to draft their 2027 multi-year budgets.
Stakeholders state-wide are being called upon to actively direct spending toward grassroots needs.
Public affairs commentator, Yusuf Ishaku Goje emphasized in a media statement that citizen participation is a legal entitlement rather than a routine administrative step.
Citing the Kaduna State Local Government Reform Law (No. 3 of 2018), Goje highlighted key provisions governing the process:
Mandatory Civic Engagement: Section 56(1) obligates councils to foster a participatory governance culture that complements formal representative structures.
Goje noted that Section 72 stipulates that no council budget can be approved by local executives or legislators without prior community consultation during a town hall meeting.
He added that sub-section (d) explicitly prohibits submitting any budget lacking verified community input to the State House of Assembly for appropriation.
He said following this legal mandate, the Ministry of Local Government Affairs issued a budget call circular on July 2, 2026.
He added that the directive instructs councils to focus capital expenditures on “community-prioritized interventions” drawn from Community Development Charter (CDC) documents (Section 6.3).
According to him, institutionalize participatory budgeting by engaging civil society, traditional rulers, youth and women’s organizations, and professional bodies (Section 10.0).
He further disclosed that it provide verifiable proof of town-hall consultations to defend their budget estimates before the Ministry’s Estimate Committee.
Navigating Fiscal Realities Goje, an advocate for the Open Government Partnership (OGP), noted that effective civic engagement requires understanding local financial constraints. Under Section 9(1) of the State Account Allocation Committee Law (No. 12 of 2019), several “first-line charge” deductions are subtracted before LGAs receive operational funds.
These mandatory deductions include: Primary school teachers’ salaries (via SUBEB) Pensions, insurance, PAYE remittances to KADIRS, and staff training funds
Statutory contributions to primary healthcare, security agencies, waste management, and administrative fees.
To maximize the impact of these meetings, Goje recommended that community groups and leaders take the following actions such as pre-meeting alignment -meeet ahead of the town halls to consolidate community needs into a single CDC document focusing on urgent healthcare, education, and rural infrastructure projects.
He urged citizens to submit written memoranda, question officials regarding net allocations post-deductions, request previous years’ revenue/spending data, and secure clear commitments for specific projects.
He added that they should follow through on town hall reports to verify that community demands remain in the budget when presented to the Ministry of Local Government Affairs and the State House of Assembly.
“Citizens are encouraged to leverage these statutory town halls to ensure public funds directly address their most pressing local challenges,” he stated.
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