Confrontation alone can’t win LG autonomy ― Ekiti NULGE boss

President of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Ekiti State Council, Comrade Oluseyi Olatunde, has said that there is a need for aggressive advocacy to achieve the desired autonomy for local governments, saying confrontation alone cannot achieve the desired results in this regard.

Olatunde said this explanation became necessary following media reports which he said misrepresented his opinion on the vexed issue, pointing out that he did not describe the local government system in Ekiti as a “hoax.”

Comrade Olatunde said in a statement, on Monday that “there is the need for aggressive advocacy for Local Government autonomy with independent fiscal responsibility which will guarantee accountability and transparency at the local government level, but this cannot be achieved through unnecessary confrontation.”

Olatunde said a newspaper had reported that he said that the state government had undermined local governments in the discharge of its functions as the closest government to the people, by allegedly diverting its statutorily allocated grants from the federation account and giving them paltry sums.

He said as much as he stands by his opinion on the rot in the local government system, the fact remains that the situations of councils across the country vary, pointing out that “for the record, Ekiti State Local Government system remains one of the best in the country, following the transformational policies by the government of Dr Kayode Fayemi.”

He affirmed that he made a statement which was his opinion on the general situation of the local government system in the country, in the spirit of the ongoing nationwide advocacy against a surreptitious bill to delist Local Government as the third tier of Government from the 1999 Constitution, and not against Ekiti State local government system as the report claimed.

Olatunde said the publication was aimed at pitting the leadership of the local government in the state against Ekiti State government, a venture he said was not in the best interest of the harmony the councils are enjoying in this dispensation.

He said the leadership of NULGE in Ekiti State and himself had promised to continue to agitate for a better local government system through subtle and scientific methods in line with modern-day practice, and not through undue confrontation.

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