NLC vows to ensure governors, speakers meet demand for LG, judiciary autonomy

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has threatened to ensure disruption of the proposed meeting between Nigerian Governors Forum and speakers of the 36 Houses of Assembly allegedly targeting to scuttle the passage of autonomy for the judiciary and Local Governments in the State Houses of Assembly.

The union made this known when it marched its members in their numbers last Friday to the Fraiser Suite and Hotel in Central Business Area, Abuja, the scheduled venue of the meeting, chanting solidarity songs while carrying placards with different inscriptions.

Addressing the crowd at the entrance of the hotel, NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, said the workers were at the venue of the meeting to ensure the issue of autonomy for the three critical sectors is given the attention its require.

He said, “All of us could recall that the issue of autonomy and independence for these three arms of government to actually operate independently, have been an issue in Nigeria. And that have led to a lot of challenges. I can say as a matter of fact, that it is because the local government system is not working. That is why the security architecture of Nigeria today has collapsed. There is no security anywhere because that tier of government that should provide all the necessary information and all the necessary wherewithal to attend to issues of insecurity is no longer functional.

“In fact, some of their responsibilities, including fixing roads, building coal beds, creating employment opportunities, have been taken over and that is why you see people now moving en masse from the state capitals and the local governments, to the city centres. It is a very chaotic process and we must put this to an end.

“We can have the system reversed because we have also competent people, people well educated that are our man in our local governments. In the local government, we have all careers that if given the chance they will be able to attend to all these challenges that is now bedevilling development of our system.

“That is why we have taken it as a major campaign to every nook and cranny that every politician, be it chairman of a Local Government, be it members of the State Assembly, must endorsed this bill on the autonomy of the Local Governments.

“We say this with passion because we know it is going to improve on the woes that Nigeria is going through today. It is not only about siphoning their funds, it is also about having a credible election at the local government system, because that is where true democracy has been practised.”

While the protest was going on, the Director-General of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), Abdulrazak Barkindo, who was leaving the venue evidently because of the protest, told journalists that the meeting had been suspended, but didn’t say whether it would hold on a later day.

Speaking to the press men after the departure of NGF DG, Wabba said that workers would be at alert to learn of another venue and date of the meeting. He said that NLC and its members would storm any other venue for the next meeting and would not rest until their demands are met.

Also speaking, the National President of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Comrade Ambali Olatunji, insisted that Nigerians have accepted that Local Government and the judiciary should be accorded full autonomy across the State Houses of Assembly. He added that a progressive Nigeria without LG autonomy in practice would amount to efforts in futility.

He called on governors not to be hindrance to Nigeria’s progress and actualisation of the desired development Nigerians yearn for.