NULGE insist on local govt autonomy, accuse governors of sabotage

THE National Union of Local Government Employees ( NULGE) says it will not relent in its efforts at ensuring that local government system in the country is granted autonomy, just as it accused state governors of working against it for their selfish gains.

National President of NULGE, Comrade Ibrahim Khalil who stated this during the South- South Zonal rally of the Union in Calabar on Friday said elites and state governors were frustrating local government autonomy to get more money into their pockets.

Khalil said: ” The only way we can have inclusive government is when the local government is people- oriented and autonomous.

” Local government is dying in silence and workers are not happy. A society where there is no inclusiveness is bound to wallow in poverty and starvation. This noble idea of local govt autonomy has been hijacked by state governors and elites to get more money into their pockets”

” We are making contacts to present our demands to the President and also let him know the excruciating experiences we are suffering from the hands of governors”

Khalil, however, called for the scrapping of the Joint Account Committee ( JAAC), which he said, was inimical to the development of local government administration in the country.

He said local government autonomy will bring rapid development at the grassroots level hence the need for state and national assembly’s to enact legislation in support of local government autonomy.

” What is happening in local government is unacceptable. National and state assembly should be sensitive and responsive to the issue of local government autonomy.

” Governors are using state assemblies to frustrate local government autonomy forgetting that it is the only thing that can bring development in the grassroots,” the NULGE President added.

Also speaking, Akwa Ibom State President of NULGE, Comrade Martins Effiong said local government which is the third tier of government had been turned into a department of the state.

He, however, called on the Independent Electoral Commission ( INEC) to take over the conduct of local government elections in order to ensure transparency.