From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The National Association of Local Government Employees (NULGE), on Thursday, advised the 2023 presidential aspirants to either support Local Government autonomy or risk not being supported by the union.
To this end, it called Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) flag bearer, Atiku Abubakar and the Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi to come out clear on their position on local government autonomy in their campaigns.
Addressing a media briefing in Abuja on their struggle for local government autonomy, National President of NULGE Olatunji Ambali, who pointed out that two states, Kogi and Abia, have already passed the Local Government Autonomy Bill, out of the 36 states, said the three prominent presidential candidates should come out with their blueprint on how to achieve local government autonomy.
He commended the political parties, especially the PDP and APC, for refusing to give their ticket to anti-local government autonomy aspirants during their party primaries at the just concluded convention. NULGE had earlier warned the political party before their convention that it would be a bad market for them to give their ticket to anti-local government autonomy aspirants, saying the entire local government workers would vote against such a party.
He further appreciated the delegates for their decision to vote against anti-local government autonomy aspirants.
“On that background NULGE wants to call on the prominent political candidates, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu of APC, Atiku Abubakar of PDP, and Peter Obi of Labour party to come out categorically and clearly, to let Nigerians know their mindset and plan on local government autonomy. They must come out. What do they intend to do? Any candidate that failed to state categorically his stand on local government autonomy should not be voted for by Nigerian people. NULGE would go out to mobilise against such candidate.
He called on all members of NULGE to use all the window available now to collect their PVC “so that we would be able to stand a good ground to vote for a candidate that intend to grant local government autonomy or sustain local government autonomy struggle.”
Ambali also called on President Muhammadu Buhari that the only legacy he can live behind for Nigerians to remember him is to use his political power to prevail on APC states to quickly pass local government autonomy.
It is not enough to desire local government autonomy; it is time to match President Buhari’s desire with action.
The NULGE President commended the former governor of Lagos State and present Minister of Works, Babatunde Fasola for his position on the need for local government autonomy, and called him to mobilise his colleagues in the APC, being a prominent member of President Buhari government, to queue behind the agitation towards actualizing it now.
Two states across the federation, Kogi and Abia states have passed the Local Government Autonomy Bill into law, out of the 36 states in the country.
While commending the government of the states, and the House of Assembly in Kogi and Abia states, the NULGE National President called on the remaining 34 states to see it as a patriotic duty and quickly pass the bill within the next one month.
“Against this background, we want to call on the remaining 34 states’ assembly to see as a patriotic duty the quick passage of the Local Government Autonomy Bill. Nigeria should not be allowed to disintegrate completely. The threat of insecurity, joblessness, youth restiveness, banditry, terrorism, and poverty that is confronting Nigerian masses need to be controlled. The way to fix this is by granting absolute autonomy to local government system.“ He added.