The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has called on the presidential candidates of the All Progress Congress (APC), People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Mr Peter Obi, respectively, to publicly make known their stance on local government autonomy bill to Nigerians.
NULGE further said it would mobilise its teeming members across Nigeria to vote against presidential candidates who refuse to support LG autonomy, while it would on the other hand vote massively for any candidate that supports and ensures the bill is passed into law.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja over the weekend at its headquarters, NULGE President, Comrade Ambali Akeem Olatunji, went on to commend the Abia and Kogi States’ Houses of Assembly and governments for taking the lead in passing into law the LG autonomy bill.
Olatunji called on the remaining 34 states’ Assembly to see it as a patriotic duty to pass the local government autonomy bill. He noted that granting LG autonomy is a step towards addressing insecurity, joblessness, banditry and terrorism in Nigeria.
“It is time to fix Nigeria and the way to fix it is granting absolute autonomy to the local government system in Nigeria. Nigeria cannot be fixed without the passage of LG autonomy and the third tier of government functioning as an entity of its own. Meanwhile, the foundation of Nigeria’s growth is the local government system.
“Let me also appreciate the political parties that refuse to vote anti local government autonomy candidates to be the flag bearers of their party.
“NULGE is calling on the prominent presidential candidates of the 2023 general elections, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of APC, Atiku Abubakar of PDP and Peter Obi of Labour Party, to come out categorically clear to let Nigerians know their mind set on local government autonomy. They must come out to tell Nigerians what they intend to do about LG autonomy.
“Any candidate that fails to state his stand on local government autonomy should not be voted for by the Nigerian people. NULGE will go out to mobilise against such candidates.
“I am also using this opportunity to call on all members of NULGE to use the window that INEC has made available to register and collect their PVC, so that we will be able to stand a good ground to vote for a candidate that intends to grant local government autonomy or sustain LG autonomy struggle.”
On the continued agitation on police, NULGE president said, “Instead of having proliferation of unorganised security groups like vigilantes, it is time for the Federal Government and National Assembly to convert the different security outfits to local government police so that there will be effective on our rural routes and local communities. Many atrocities committed by bandits and terrorists are under reported. The call for Nigerian citizens to possess arms for self defense is not appropriate.
“What should be done is that local vigilantes should be recruited properly, registered, trained and provided with the necessary tools to police the local communities, and they should be well remunerated by the various local governments. NULGE believes that the federal police are policing the federal and state headquarters, it is only the rural areas that have no effective policing system. So the local vigilantes should be converted and registered for effective monitoring of rural areas and deepening security intelligence of our local communities.”
Also, the NULGE President called on the Federal Government to quickly resolve all the issues that caused the ongoing strike that have crippled the country’s tertiary education, to enable students and their teachers return back to school.
The union further said it is shameful and condemnable for the Federal Government to go about whatever else it considers its business while the country’s universities are shut.
“What is happening in the education sector calls for concern. As at today, any responsive and responsible government should have been having sleepless nights over the continuous closure of Nigeria’s universities and research institutions. We are surprised that up till now, the Federal Government is yet to take any proactive measure over this. It is condemnable because the proliferation of private universities will not help the children of the poor, it is the masses that will suffer.
“We therefore call on the Federal Government to immediately meet ASUU and resolve this crisis so that Nigerian students will go back to school instead of being used for banditry, terrorism and what have you. We cannot afford to destroy our education sector in Nigeria.”
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