The local government employees also renewed its calls for the speedy passage of the local government autonomy bill, pointing out that the autonomy would ensure financial independence for the 774 local government areas in the country.
The local government employees under the umbrella of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) have lamented continuous negligence and meagre allocations from the federal and state levels of governance.
NULGE particularly accused state governors of continuously diverting and misappropriating local government funds, and therefore called on the various Nigerian anti-graft agencies to track the local government allocation in the past seven years.
The local government employees also renewed its calls for the speedy passage of the local government autonomy bill, pointing out that the autonomy would ensure financial independence for the 774 local government areas in the country.
According to a report by ThisDay, the NULGE President, Mr. Ambali Olatunji, while speaking on Thursday in Abuja, warned state governors against inducing and conniving with the Nigerian lawmakers to stop the passage of the bill.
Olatunji lamented that only 10 states had passed the local government autonomy bill and encouraged other states to endorse it without delay.
The NULGE boss alleged that some governors were holding secret meetings with the speakers of state assemblies to prevent the states from passing the local government autonomy bill in the ongoing constitutional amendment.
“The governors are elected to govern the state as a whole, local government chairmen are elected to govern the local government. It is painful when you see the amount allocated. Sometimes, the local governments are allocated up to N120 million, N90 million, N80 million (from the federation account).
"Ask yourself what gets to the local government. At times, it can be N10 million, N5 million; some don’t get more than N2 million. Where is the money going? We call on the EFCC, ICPC and NFIU to track local government allocation in the last seven years and tell us what has been done with them,” ThisDay quoted Olatunji as saying.
Speaking further, Olatunji maintained that full autonomy for local governments in Nigeria would help solve the challenges of insecurity and unemployment, noting that both are local issues that could be addressed by the councils.
“What we are witnessing today; be it harrowing poverty, joblessness, hopelessness, banditry, or insurrection has a deep root in the lack of a functional local government system. Every security challenge is local; the solution to it is local.
“If the local government has been focused and efficient, all these rural roads would have been upgraded; they can also organise local security and intelligence gathering. We will end insecurity if every community is safe in the hands of local security,” he said.