The National President of the Nigeria Union Of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Comrade Akeem Ambali, on Wednesday, said the only way to fix Nigeria is by fixing the local government.
Ambali said the local governments serve as a symbol of governance, adding that efforts put in place by the state and federal governments will not yield any positive result once the local governments are not functioning.
The NULGE President noted that the absence of functioning local governments has turned rural areas into criminals’ dens.
Ambali made this known in Osogbo, Osun State capital during the grand finale of the 2023 Osun NULGE week.
According to him, “Things are not alright in Nigeria. Citizens are hungry and the pain is unbearable. There is no adequate security. Poverty has become the order of the day. Regrettably, Nigeria is the only oil-producing country that is importing petroleum products.
“It is time to look inward. We can’t continue to be a consuming nation. As of today, the government can no longer provide gainful employment for the people of the country.
“The rural communities have become home to criminals and rituals. The people in the rural areas have moved to the city because of the lack of basic amenities.
“The future of the country is bleak unless we fix the country and we can’t fix the country without fixing the local governments because the local government is the most strategic and relevant to Nigeria people. Once we don’t have a functional local government, we can’t get it right.
“The local government is the symbol of governance and once things are wrong from the local government, no matter how much effort is put in place by the state and the federal, it will not yield any positive result.
“The local government is the medium through which citizens of the state access the dividend of democracy. In years back, local government chairmen held security meetings but now, the local governments can no longer provide security. We need financial autonomy for local government to function well.”
Osun NULGE President, Dr Kehinde Ogungbangbe, in his welcome address, appealed to the state government to employ more staff in the local government, particularly in the primary health care centres.
Ogungbangbe said, “Presently, we are short staffed at the local government service. People have been retiring from service without replacement and this did not start now.
“It started from the previous administration and our appeal to recruit more staff fell on deaf ears. Now that we have a worker-friendly governor, we have decided to ask him.
“Local government workers are being depleted every day, most especially in the primary health care centres and we want the government to recruit more workers.”
But responding to the union’s request, Adeleke who was represented by his deputy, Prince Kola Adewusi, said there is a lot of redundancy in local governments across the state, calling on leadership of the union to work with the government to address it.
He said, “There is much to be done at the local government level. You complained about the shortage of staff in primary health centres. I know that is a special discipline that you cannot just draft people into, but at the same time, I want to observe that there is still low performance from some members of staff.
“You go to some local governments and ask after some of these officers in Osun state, they are either in Ibadan or Lagos or other states transacting their own business.
“I want the NULGE leadership to look into this aspect too. There is a lot of redundancy in all local governments by some staff. Help the state government to help you too. Let’s look at it together so that we can have optimal performance from the local government.
“I want to assure you that the state government will look into all your requests one after the other.”
Part of the activities to mark the week was a football competition among the union members with Ede/Ejigbo/Egbedore federal constituency emerging winners.
Also, the elder sister of the governor, Yeye Modupeola Adeleke-Sanni was honoured at the event.
. TheWitness
