The National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has called on the President Bola Tinubu and the 36 state Governors of the Federation to implement the Supreme Court judgment on Local Government Autonomy.
This is just as called on the National Assembly to give the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the power to conduct local government elections.
President-General of NULGE, Comrade Aliyu Haruna Kankara, made the call at a Dialogue Forum organised by Dr. Cosmas Ilechukwu in Abuja, with the theme “Local Government Autonomy: Making it Work.”
Kankara who was represented by the Organising Secretary, NULGE, Olamisoji Tolulope, he said, “Get the issue of local government autonomy solved today, and we can assure you that close to 100%, of the challenges facing the local government will be solved.
On the issue of conducting local government elections, he said, “The position of the union is that an independent body or INEC should handle that matter.”
He appreciated President Tinubu and the Minister of Justice, and the Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Lateef Fagbemi, for the landmark judgement on local government autonomy and urged them to have the political will to implement it.
Also speaking, the convener of the dialogue, Dr. Cosmas Ilechukwu said, “local government is one tier of government that touches everybody, the most basic, the most fundamental of the tiers of government.
“if we have it working well, things will be much better for us. So we needed to talk about it. It’s easier to handle that and then build up from there to the topmost level, which is federal.”
He also noted that despite the landmark judgement by the supreme court. States are yet to implement local government autonomy.
‘You realise that part of the reason why it hasn’t been done is because of political will for the people in authority, the people in the presidency and the people at the states to be able to make up their mind to let this be.
On his part, the Keynote Speaker, Dr. Sam Amadi, said “The Supreme Court decision on local government autonomy has triggered a conversation, a national conversation around the autonomy of the local government and what local government means for economic and social development of the country.
“This concern is because across the country, local governments have become more like, they are functionally dead. In many local governments before now, there are no elected officials, they are managed by politicians of the government, contrary to what the constitution intended.”
