NULGE commends Supreme Court ruling on LG autonomy

The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has said the recent Supreme Court judgement that nullified the laws empowering state governors to sack elected local government officials would deepen the democratic process, especially at the grassroots.

President of NULGE, Comrade Ibrahim Khaleel, who spoke with journalists in Abuja said the court judgement has given hope for democracy to take root at the local government level, adding that the action of state governors at the local government areas has for long denied people at the grassroots their constitutional rights to elect their leaders at that level.

He said, the action of the governors over the years has underdeveloped the third tier of government.

He pointed out that the local governments have been at the mercy of the governors, who divert money meant for the operation of local councils and leave the third tier of government without funds to pay for workers’ salaries.

Khaleel lamented that many of their members across the country have not received salary for several months, running to seven and eight months in some states.

He said, “The state governments have seriously encroached on the resources of local government and it has affected the running of local government administration across the country.”

The NULGE president called for total autonomy of local government, and noted that the local government system was emasculated after 2003, with governors opposed to granting of autonomy to the local governments.

He added, “Communities and local government areas are underdeveloped because the state governors siphoned allocations meant for their development. It has become expedient for the local government to have their accounts separated from those of the states.”

He advocated four renewable years tenure of office for local government elected officials like elected members of other tiers of government.

It would be recalled the Supreme Court had recently in a landmark judgement affecting the local government in the country, nullified the provisions of the laws enacted by states’ Houses of Assembly that empower governors to carry out dissolution of elected local government executives and replace them with caretaker committees.

The apex court described as “executive recklessness” the rampant acts of governors dissolving democratically-elected local government councils in their states and replacing them with caretaker committees.