NULGE Laments State Govts’ Interference On Local Councils

The National Union of Lo
cal Government Employees (NULGE) has berated the overbearing influence of state governments on  local government council areas in the country.
In a statement signed by the union National President, Comrade Ibrahia Khaleel obtained by The Tide from the Union’s Port Harcourt  secretariat on Wednesday said the just concluded National Conference failed in its duty to address the issue of the overbearing influence of state governments on the councils.
Khaleel insisted that the confab was not radical enough to revolutionize the local government as a veritable centre of an inclusive development.
He said the union was not absolutely comfortable with some of the recommendations churued out from the conference.
The Union’s boss sais the conference failed to address the issue of local government autonomy for the respective councils which NULGE had  been clamouring for over the years for in the country.
“I want to say that we are still on course concerning our struggle as a union and the fact that the result of the National conference was not palatable to us does not mean the struggle is over.”
He said the union as a trade union is pursuing a genuine course for an inclusive arrangement of governance, stressing that the struggle of the union is to achieve the objective of strengthening the operations of the local government councils in the country.
The Union’s President said the Union believes that putting the local government directly under the merey of state governments would further hamper the operations of local governments.
H e said from 1999 till date the local government council areas have had ugly experience particularly in their relationship with their respective state governments.
He said there had been several attempts to destroy the local government councils even when local governments were mentioned under a section in the constitution, stressing that some of the recommendations of the confab are things that can be taken by some state governments at will especially the issue of creating more local governments as such state wish can be abused without appreciating the repercussion on the local government system.
He said the union is re-strategising to take their struggle to the next level without compromise Khaleel emphasised that the country’s democracy must be a constitutionally guided democracy  otherwise everything will be bastardised which would be unhealthy for the nation.

Philip Okparaji