NULGE tells Buhari, APC to adopt LG autonomy at party convention

THE Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), has asked President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to match their words with action and take a progressive stand by adopting local government autonomy in their forthcoming national party convention.

While NULGE extols President Buhari for his recent comment on the importance of a vibrant LG system to Nigeria’s development if granted autonomy, the union went on to advise the 36 state governors to seek God and Nigerians’ forgiveness and retrace their steps for allegedly destroying systems of the third tier of government in the country.

It also maintained that rising insecurity challenges like kidnapping, banditry, terrorism, among others, facing the country would not end soon if there is “consistent rape of the local government system” by cabals and politicians.

President of NULGE, Comrade Olatunji Ambali, who stated these at a press conference in Abuja, attributed the near-collapse of the LGs in Nigeria to the way and manner in which council chairmen are ‘selected’ rather than elected, stressing that they usually emerge through appointments devoid of credibility.

“We demand autonomy for local government whereby INEC will be empowered to conduct council elections. The creation of state electoral commissions has resulted in a lot of abuse and lack of transparency in the conduct of council elections.

“What they are doing now is coronation, appointment and promotion of political jobbers and cronies into local government administration, thereby creating an avenue to siphon council resources.

“That is why NULGE clamours for the conduct of credible and acceptable elections at the council level. If the process is thorough, the leadership would be a leadership elected by the people that would be accountable to them and not to the state government,” Ambali said.

The union leader further noted that NULGE was also clamouring for full financial autonomy for the councils, adding that “it is absurd to have a meal between a lion and a dog and create a centre to allow both animals to share the food, knowing that when the lion finishes the meal, he will also go for the dog.

“So, council allocations should be directly paid to their account. The lacuna in the 1999 Constitution (as amended) called the joint allocation account is no longer acceptable to Nigerians and NULGE. It must be scrapped because it gives room for stealing and diversion of council funds by politicians at the state level.”

Furthermore, Ambali said, “Local governments have been pauperised overtime, it has become a caricature of itself due to the systematic destruction of the local government system by state political actors led by the governors across the country.

“For us, we don’t believe state police is necessary. We have said that what we need in Nigeria is community policing; local government police, because the states’ cosmopolitan cities are already over policed.

“We have the headquarters of the Nigerian Police at the state headquarters, we have the headquarters of the state security services at the state headquarters, we have that of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps at the state headquarters and the military at the state headquarters, leaving the rural areas vulnerable.

“That is why the spate of kidnapping, banditry, armed robbery and terrorism is evidently seen in all the rural communities. If we must address this high level of insecurity and instability in Nigeria, local governments must be autonomous and we must grant local government police which is community policing.”

“And they must be allowed to carry light arms. If we allow the local vigilantes to carry little arms, they will be able to address this issue of insecurity. As of today, no Nigerian can freely move across the country. We live in fear as farmers can no longer go to their farms. Women can no longer go about their normal businesses because they are kidnapped, raped and killed,” Ambali said.