Ahead of the 2023 general election, the National Association of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has threatened to mobilize against any lawmaker or governor not in support of local government autonomy, in the forthcoming election.
The National President of the Association, Comrade Olatunji Ambali, who issued the threat while speaking during advocacy on local government autonomy at the Plateau State House of Assembly, chided some governors and state assembly members in the country for their hesitant posture toward the bill.
He pointed out that the forum of the governor lacks convincing reasons why the local government autonomy bill should not be passed, adding that the reasons adduced by some of them are selfish.
“Any state that is not stealing local government funds will have no problem passing the Local Government Autonomy Bill. If we are serious about fighting insecurity, the local government must be given financial autonomy.
“Between 2015 and date, the allocations to local government are about N500 billion, without aggregate development and improvement in local government. No wonder urban migration has continued to thrive, thereby leaving local governments vulnerable to banditry and terrorism.
“President Buhari meant well for the country; he sent a presidential order, but the governors went to court to challenge it. What is their problem? Do you want to be governor and chairman of the local government at the same time?” he asked.
He said, “Our power is our vote. Any member of the House who votes against autonomy, we should vote against them. After this, we would commission you to go to your various constituencies and wait for them, including the governors. You should be ready to campaign against any anti-local government politicians.”
The team leader of the Coalition of Civil Society in Plateau State, Comrade Steve Aluko, said the path to a prosperous Nigeria is local government autonomy.
The Plateau State house of assembly also called for immediate consideration of the local government autonomy bill 2022, adding that the law, when passed, will strengthen good governance at the local government level and promote accountability, transparency, and open government.
According to him, it will also give the majority of our rural populists a fair sense of ownership and responsibility, adding that it will promote healthy competitive development among the 774 LGAs in Nigeria and provide for the basic needs for healthy living, arrest unguided urban drift, and increase urban slums.
“It guarantees verifiable platforms for the security of life and property of all, including top politicians and civil servants that will eventually retire to a local government after they serve the nation, etc.”
“Given all these advantages, this call is made under the renewed vigor of a collective aspiration to give a better life to the third tiers of governance.” These sanctities are in the collective resolve of the presidency, the national assembly, the erudite judgment of the supreme court, and the plateau state of assembly from the first to the eighth, and the people of the plateau state have always, at different times, thought and acted plateau given our peculiarities and challenges of underdevelopment, voting for local government autonomy.
“Therefore, the 9th Assembly cannot afford the luxury of wasting this rare opportunity to make or mar history by writing their names in gold.” They must resist all the temptation to will the future of the majority of rural populists on the plateau to beg.”
Responding, the Speaker of Plateau State House of Assembly, Hon. Yakubu Sanda, represented by his deputy, Hon. Saleh Yepmong said the position of the House will not be too far from the thinking of the people of Plateau State.
According to him, the House has been on the front lines of the agitation by labor, adding that there are members of the Assembly who have also been on the front lines and they will not be too far from the thinking of the people.
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