Public-private partnerships should be treated as a governance model, not merely a financing tool, if the nation’s newly empowered local governments are to deliver visible development to communities, Sunday Dare said Tuesday at an annual lecture in Lagos.
Speaking to a packed hall of guests, Dare hailed President Bola Tinubu’s recent move to grant financial autonomy to the nation’s 774 local government councils as “one of the most consequential governance reforms in Nigeria’s democratic history.”
He urged councils across the country to leverage public-private partnerships, or PPPs, to drive sustainable grassroots development and to translate autonomy into improved service delivery and accountability.
“Public-Private Partnerships should not be viewed solely as financing arrangements for large infrastructure projects but as a governance model that brings government, businesses, civil society and local communities together to deliver sustainable development,” Dare said on his official X-handle (formerly Twitter).
“Financial autonomy must translate into greater transparency, stronger accountability, improved service delivery and more meaningful partnerships with communities and the private sector. Only then will autonomy achieve its true purpose of improving the daily lives of Nigerians.”
The presidential aide argued that effective collaboration with the private sector would help bridge funding gaps, accelerate project delivery, stimulate innovation and create jobs, while restoring public confidence in governance through tangible outcomes.
“Nigeria’s greatest opportunity does not reside solely in Abuja or our state capitals. It resides in our wards, our villages and our towns. That is where governance must be felt, and where prosperity must begin,” he said.
He also flagged the limits of PPPs at the grassroots, pointing to weak institutional capacity, lack of transparency, policy inconsistency, public mistrust and political discontinuity as major obstacles.
“These challenges must be addressed if PPPs are to be effective at the local level,” Dare said.
NewsQuest reports that the timing of Tinubu’s autonomy directive for local governments, and calls from public commentators for local and sub-national governments to embrace private-sector collaboration, adds pressure on municipal administrators to demonstrate results quickly.
At the Gazelle Media lecture, Dare painted the autonomy move as a template for development if local governments use it to integrate private investment, civil-society input and community participation into planning and execution.
“We must ensure that autonomy yields measurable improvements in health, education, infrastructure and livelihoods,” he said.
President Tinubu’s administration has always described local-government autonomy as part of a broader push to strengthen governance at the subnational level.
Analysts argue that implementation however, will hinge on local and state governments and private partners working in concert.
