Conference Abstract | Volume 8, Abstract ELIC202515 (Poster 158) | Published: 06 Aug 2025
Kingsley Oladayo Ogunne1,&, Luqman Olawale Alako2
1Department of Political Science, Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Nigeria, 2Department of Public Administration, Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Nigeria
&Corresponding author: Kingsley Oladayo Ogunne, Department of Political Science, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, Email:ogunneinfo@gmail.com
Received: 31 May 2025, Accepted: 09 Jul 2025, Published: 06 Aug 2025
Domain: Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Keywords: Local government, decentralization, Lassa fever, epidemics, public health, Nigeria
©Kingsley Oladayo Ogunne et al. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health (ISSN: 2664-2824). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article: Kingsley Oladayo Ogunne et al., Beyond financial autonomy: Strengthening local governments for effective epidemic response in Nigeria2. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health. 2025;8(ConfProc5):00302. https://doi.org/10.37432/JIEPH-CONFPRO5-00302
Local governments are indispensable to public health emergency preparedness due to their proximity to communities and capacity for localized responses. Countries have shown that empowered local authorities can effectively lead outbreak surveillance, risk communication, and response coordination. In Nigeria, however, local governments remain structurally limited by fiscal dependence on states, ambiguous constitutional status, and weak institutional autonomy, undermining their contributions to epidemic response, including for Lassa Fever. The 2024 Supreme Court ruling mandating financial autonomy has rekindled policy interest in decentralization. However, questions remain about whether fiscal reforms alone can enable meaningful change in health emergency governance.
This study uses qualitative policy analysis, including document review, stakeholder interviews, and thematic coding. Key documents analyzed include the National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS), state preparedness plans, and relevant legal frameworks. Eighteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with local health officials, policymakers, and civil society actors across three Lassa Fever-endemic states (Edo, Ondo, Bauchi).
The findings show a consistent pattern of insufficient integration of local government in core epidemic preparedness structures despite statutory responsibility over primary health care. Structural bottlenecks include limited budgetary discretion, overlapping mandates with state health authorities, and poor political representation. However, in states like Ondo and Edo, preliminary policy shifts following the Supreme Court ruling are enabling limited, but promising, local innovations in disease surveillance and response coordination. Stakeholders stressed the need for more than fiscal decentralization, emphasizing participatory governance, clearer mandates, and community trust as essential for success.
Financial autonomy is a necessary but insufficient condition for effective local epidemic preparedness. True decentralization requires political and democratic strengthening of local governments through elected leadership, accountability mechanisms, and institutional reforms. Only then can they fulfil their potential as drivers of community-centred health resilience and Lassa Fever response.
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