In Osun State, a political stalemate has frozen local government allocations since the early period of 2025. The Federal Government only recently released some funds amid accusations of partisan meddling. Citing constitutional requirements for democratically elected councils, it withheld allocations on the grounds that the local governments were improperly constituted. Sadly, this situation is not limited to Osun State. The delivery of public goods to the grassroots has deteriorated in Nigeria, revealing a deeper flaw in Nigeria’s federal design – a relic of military centralism that imposes a one-size-fits-all system on diverse states.