THE Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), yesterday, warned the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) against any surreptitious move to thwart the recent Supreme Court judgment that granted total financial autonomy to the local government administration in the country, or use any other means to make it ineffective.
Speaking at the colloquium during the 2nd National NULGE Week in Abuja, with the theme, “Making Local Government Administration Work for Nigeria People,” the union’s National President, Comrade AmbaniAkermanOlatunji, said a financially strong people driven local government is a democratic right of Nigerian people. The colloquium, which was attended by NULGE members, government and trade union dignitaries, discussed topics on transparency and accountability in financially autonomous local government in Nigeria, impacts of local government autonomy on grassroots and local funding.
Comrade Olatunji said, “We want to sound the note of warning to members of Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), who started surreptitious and clandestine move to thwart that judgment because of their insatiable appetite to continue to steal, misapply, misappropriate government fund.
“The time to put a stop to it is now. A financially strong people driven, people centered, local government is a democratic right of Nigerian people. We must adopt a bottom up approach to governance.
“Unless we do this, national development and growth will continue to elude Nigeria. For a country so blessed with vast natural resources, vast human resources, and rich soil to continue to be the poverty headquarters of the world, is not acceptable.”
Continuing he said; “Just last year we conceptualized the idea of celebrating the role and contribution of local government administration to public governance and national development. It has come to stay, and within those two years, God answered our prayer. Our quest to free local government administration from the hands of the state political actors has now become a thing of the past. “Let us appreciate President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who took the bull by the horn and sought interpretation and affirmation of the role and existence of an autonomous local government system in Nigeria, which we have attempted severally for 21 years. We are unable to achieve it.
“We were looking at the parliamentary option, but the President, out of his ingenuity, brought another dimension to it. And that landmark judgment by the Supreme Court has put the whole matter to rest.” He further said, “We must rise up to change the narrative, and we can only do that if we allow the local government to deliver dividends of democracy. “Local government is the most strategic, the most relevant and the closest to Nigerian people. Development cannot be achieved without having a vibrant local government system.
“Local government is the vehicle through which growth and development can reach Nigerian people easily.
“When you talk about the issue of poverty, infrastructure, deficit, insecurity and bad governance, it can be linked to the absence of that sub-national government that has become missing in action. No wonder most of Nigerian space is now ungoverned. They are occupied by bandits, terrorists and nobody can go home. You can’t go to your village without visiting a mountain or go and pray.
“So the time to reset Nigeria is now. The time to rework Nigeria for Nigerian people is now. The time to make local government work for the Nigerian masses is now. Local government bureaucrats are ready. We are well trained, and we believe with fiscal autonomy for local government, Nigeria will witness tremendous growth and progress.
“Let us stand up for our local government. Let us defend the downtrodden masses. Let us scale up infrastructure development at the local government level. Let us arrest the spite of insecurity in Nigerian rural communities and rural roads. Let us reduce poverty by creating vocational skill acquisition and empowerment for Nigeria.
“Once we are able to do that, Nigeria will be on the path of greatness. The time to rework Nigeria is now. The time to rework local government is now. Once you fix local government, you have fixed Nigeria.”
