Abia State Scores Lowest on National Audit Transparency Index as Civil Society Calls for Urgent Reforms!

April 6, 2026 7 Min Read

Reported by Marian Opeyemi Fasesan, Editor–in–chief | Journalist at Sele Media Africa.

ABUJA, Nigeria — Abia State ranked last in Nigeria’s 2025 Subnational Audit Efficacy Index with a 9 percent audit transparency score, tying with Rivers State, according to findings presented by the Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative in Abuja on Tuesday, April 1, 2026. Civil society group FENRAD has demanded urgent reforms, including the publication of audit reports, stronger independence for the Office of the Auditor-General and faster public accountability by the state government. (fij.ng)

The result places Abia among the weakest-performing states in Nigeria’s public audit system. It also renews questions about whether the state publishes enough financial information for citizens, lawmakers and oversight institutions to track how public funds move through government. (fij.ng)

What The Index Measured

The Subnational Audit Efficacy Index evaluates public finance management and policy implementation across Nigeria’s 36 states by examining public audit systems and the key actors involved in the audit action cycle. FIJ reported that the 2025 edition used data from the 2024 financial year, with state-level assessments accounting for 80 percent of the score and local government assessments accounting for the remaining 20 percent. (fij.ng)

The report showed a countrywide weakness in fiscal openness. It said the national average score rose to 34.5 percent in 2025, but half of the states still fell below the benchmark. FIJ also reported that 18 states failed to publish audit reports on state accounts in 2024, while 21 did not publish reports on local government accounts. (fij.ng)

Only three states produced standard performance audit reports covering government programmes, projects or policies, according to FIJ’s report on the index. The same report said only five of the 36 states had full financial autonomy, while just 12 had administrative independence for the Office of the Auditor-General. (fij.ng)

Ekiti State topped the 2025 index with 72 percent, while Gombe and Yobe placed second with 68 percent each. Abia and Rivers shared the bottom position with 9 percent. That spread shows that the problem does not come from one region alone, but from uneven accountability practice across the federation. (fij.ng)

Why Abia’s Score Matters

Abia’s 9 percent score carries political and institutional weight because it reflects how a state manages the public record that should show where money goes. In practical terms, the score suggests weak publication of audit reports, poor visibility of local government accounts and limited public access to accountability documents. (fij.ng)

The timing also matters. FIJ reported that the index relied on 2024 financial-year data, so the result does not describe the Otti administration’s entire record in 2026. Instead, it provides a benchmark against which the administration can now measure reform before the next assessment cycle. (fij.ng)

PLSI said the 2025 edition marked the first methodological change in six years because it now includes local government public audit functions in Nigeria. Executive Director Olusegun Elemo said the group collected, analysed and validated data from audit institutions, public accounts committees, accountant-general offices, civil society groups and media organisations across all 36 states. (fij.ng)

That broader method matters because it means Abia did not lose points over one missing report alone. The low score points to a wider institutional problem involving audit independence, legislative review, publication of reports and the way citizens can, or cannot, see government accounts. (fij.ng)

FENRAD Demands Immediate Action

FENRAD condemned Abia’s performance and urged the state government to deepen transparency reforms. The group asked the administration to make audit reports public, strengthen the Office of the Auditor-General and ensure the timely release of citizen accountability documents. (fij.ng)

That criticism reflects a long-running civil society concern in Nigeria: governments often announce accountability reforms but delay the documents that prove the reforms exist. When audit reports remain hidden, citizens cannot easily test whether schools received funding, whether road contracts were delivered properly or whether local government money reached the intended projects. (fij.ng)

FENRAD’s position also places pressure on the Abia State House of Assembly, because audit findings mean little if lawmakers do not review them and demand answers. The index’s emphasis on public accounts committees shows that legislative scrutiny sits at the centre of accountability, not on the margins. (fij.ng)

PLSI made a similar argument in its recommendations. It urged state audit offices to move beyond compliance-only checks and adopt routine performance and value-for-money audits across key sectors, while public accounts committees should strengthen oversight and enforce audit recommendations. (fij.ng)

The Weaknesses Behind The Score

PLSI’s report identified several structural gaps that continue to weaken public accountability in many Nigerian states. These include weak or absent financial autonomy, limited administrative independence for auditors-general, poor publication of audit reports and delayed review of findings by oversight committees. (fij.ng)

The report also said the gains seen during the World Bank-assisted States Fiscal Transparency Accountability and Sustainability programme did not last. Elemo said the 2021 improvement, driven by that programme, later gave way to stagnation and then further decline in 2022, 2023 and 2024 as accountability systems weakened again. (fij.ng)

That trend matters for Abia because it shows how fragile transparency reforms can become when governments do not keep funding, legal protection and institutional pressure in place. A high score one year can vanish quickly if offices lose independence or if officials stop publishing records on time. (fij.ng)

The report also noted some progress at national level. It said 18 states published Citizens’ Accountability Reports in 2024, compared with 11 in 2023 and eight in 2022. Even so, Abia’s bottom-place ranking shows that the state has not yet joined the more transparent group of states. (fij.ng)

What The Numbers Mean In Practice

A 9 percent score does not only represent poor paperwork. It suggests that many residents may struggle to find clear information on how the government spends public money, who signs off the accounts and whether auditors can act independently. (fij.ng)

For a state like Abia, that has direct consequences. Residents who want to know whether education funds reached schools, whether health allocations translated into services or whether local government spending matched approved budgets need audit documents that they can actually access. (fij.ng)

The gap also affects investor confidence and development planning. Businesses and partners that study state-level governance often read audit transparency as a sign of whether institutions can manage public resources predictably. A low score therefore signals not only a political problem but also a fiscal risk. (fij.ng)

FIJ’s report placed Abia among 18 states below average on fiscal transparency, alongside states such as Lagos, Oyo, Anambra, Borno, Bayelsa, Kano, Sokoto, Ebonyi, Enugu, Kogi, Nasarawa, Ogun, Kwara, Imo, Taraba, Benue and Rivers. That broad list shows the issue cuts across Nigeria’s zones, from the South-East to the South-West, North-West and South-South. (fij.ng)

Legal And Institutional Pressure

Nigeria’s audit architecture gives the issue legal force. PLSI’s methodology materials and related releases tie transparency expectations to public audit responsibilities, financial autonomy for auditors-general and timely reporting by state institutions. (fij.ng)

The Freedom of Information Act also gives citizens and civil society a basis to request public records. PLSI has used that legal logic in its advocacy, arguing that public funds demand public documents and that delay weakens trust in government. (fij.ng)

That legal pressure matters because audit transparency does not depend only on goodwill. It depends on whether institutions follow the rules, whether legislators enforce them and whether civil society keeps demanding compliance. Abia’s response now carries institutional significance well beyond one annual ranking. (fij.ng)

The Wider African Significance

Abia’s poor showing speaks to a challenge that extends across Africa: public institutions often collect money more effectively than they disclose how they spend it. That pattern affects governance in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and other major economies where citizens and oversight bodies continue to push for stronger audit systems. (fij.ng)

The lesson matters because transparency shapes daily life. Where audit systems function well, governments can more easily show how they funded roads, clinics and schools. Where they fail, corruption risks rise, procurement abuses become harder to detect and public trust erodes. (fij.ng)

For West Africa, the Abia case adds to a broader regional debate about fiscal discipline and service delivery. For East and Southern Africa, it reinforces the value of making audit institutions independent, public and enforceable. The governance debate may differ by country, but the accountability standard remains the same. (fij.ng)

What Happens Next

The next move belongs to the Abia State Government. If it wants to escape the bottom tier in the next index, it must publish audit reports, strengthen the auditor-general’s office and show that lawmakers review and act on public accounts. (fij.ng)

Civil society groups will now watch for a formal response from the government and from the state legislature. Development partners, governance analysts and voters will also watch, because Abia’s next steps will show whether the state treats transparency as a real reform or as a public relations line. (fij.ng)

Sources:

FIJ, report on the 2025 Subnational Audit Efficacy Index, April 2026.
Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative, Subnational Audit Efficacy Index 2025 findings as reported by FIJ, April 2026.
Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative, methodology and advocacy materials on audit transparency, 2025–2026.