The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) at the weekend strongly condemned the N100 million nomination fee for presidential aspirants under the All Progressive Congress (APC), warning that the ruling party was converting political position into a commercial venture.
While NULGE said that the move would eventually fail, it further stressed that APC was inadvertently calling for mass opposition to its reign.
The President of NULGE, Comrade Ambali Akeem, who spoke with journalists at the weekend in Abuja indicated that Nigerians that whipped the opposition People Democratic Party (PDP) out of power in 2015 are still alive, and would be ready to do the same to the APC.
“Let me tell you, this thing will fail because if you overconcentrate power in the hands of a few cabals, at the end of the day you are calling for mass opposition and my concern is that APC should be careful. It is too early, I love the party, but they have to be careful. They should not feel that they have arrived and are above everybody. It is the same Nigerians who whip PDP, they are still alive,” the NULGE President warned.
He regretted that what the youth have achieved through the “not too young to run” provisions in the law, has now been destroyed by the over commercialisation of political positions by the ruling APC.
The NULGE President said: “How many youths can afford N100 million? You can see that we are not serious. If you ask someone to bring N100 million, are you not converting political position to a commercial venture.
“That is not encouraging, how can women raise N100 million for God’s sake, or even half of it, which is 50 per cent. How can youths raise N100 million or 50 percent of N100 million? It means that those who are stealing Nigeria’s money are the ones that will continue to pauperize and rule over us; that is the meaning.”
He, therefore, called for independent candidates in the electoral process, adding, “that is why we must pursue the issue of independent candidature if we are serious in Nigeria. Vote must belong to the candidate and not the party because it is not the party that rules it is the candidate that rules at the end of the day. The bulk stops at the table of the President and the Governors. Even if the party says yes, and they say no, the no stands.”
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According to him, “it is only in Nigeria you see the most powerful governor who determines who become councilors, who determines who become chairmen, who determines who become supervisors at the local government, who determines who become commissioners at the state level, who determines who go to state House of Assembly, who determines who become the party chairman, who determines who go to Senate as a Senator, who determine who become members of House of Reps; one person, and still determines who become the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria. As they said, absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
On the issue of local government autonomy, he pointed out that the core message of NULGE is that Nigerians must wake up, “it is either local government autonomy or they break Nigeria into pieces.”
“You can’t continue doing the same thing the same way and expect a better result. If we want the government’s impact to be felt by the Nigerian masses, local government autonomy is the way to go. It is not that money is not allocated to local government, somebody somewhere corners the money, the sovereign wealth of the nation ended up in the pockets of a few people and the majority of the people are suffering.
“You can see poverty in the land, you can see deprivation, you can see hopelessness, you can see restiveness, you can see banditry, you can see terrorism, and you can see clamour to break down Nigeria and you still want to continue.”
He called on Nigerians to work and ensure that the state governors should stop stealing the money through Joint Account Allocation Committee.
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