By Moses John
Abuja
National President of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Comrade Ibrahim Khaleel has urge members of state house of assemblies in Nigeria to free themselves from the bondage of state governors by voting for the administrative, financial and the political independent of local governments in Nigeria.
Comrade Khaleel who said this during the second leg of the campaign for local government autonomy, tagged: Freedom Movement For Local Government Auonomy, in Calabar, Cross River State, for the South South Zone mass rally, advised the elites irrespective of their political divides, run Local governments as their personal empire without being accountable to the grassroots people.
“A vote by the state Assemblies to free Local Governments also means freeing yourselves from the bondage of State governors.
“looking back since we embarked on the journey into the current democratic dispensation on May 29, 1999; it is clear that our ruling elite across the political divide, irrespective of party affiliation, see and indeed operate local governments as personal Chiefdoms from which they exploit without being accountable to the people. This obviously goes against the intent and rationale for the creation of the local government system which was deliberately designed for inclusive development or to take development to the very base/grassroots of our society”.
Speaking further, the NULGE boss lamented that the governors have taken advantage of lacunas in the constitution to continue to enslaving the third tiers of government.
He asserted that a robust constitutional review to amends these contradictions in the 1999 constitution would go a long way in putting local government councils in the proper framework to deliver on its objectives.
The South South national rally, which saw a large turn out of NULGE members from the six states of Bayelsa, Rivers, Delta, Edo, Akwa Ibom, and Cross River State, matched from the popular Zoo Garden, otherwise known as Freedom Park through Mary Slessor, Murtala Mohammed Way, to the Cross River Sate House of Assembly, where a protest letter was presented to Speaker of the Assembly, Hon. John Gual Lebo.
