The leadership of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has commended the Supreme Court judgment granting autonomy to the local governments.
Mr Hakeem Ambali, National President of NULGE gave the commendation in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.
The apex court in a landmark judgment had declared unconstitutional for state governors to hold funds allocated for local government administration.
Ambali described the judgment as imperative for local development, adding that the ruling marked the realisation of a longstanding aspiration.
“We want to return all Glory to God Almighty. We commend President Bola Tinubu for offering courageous leadership in ensuring that this is achieved.
“We have always maintained that, if you do not fix thelLocal government system, you cannot fix Nigeria. We also thank the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) who went through the whole legal processes.
“We also commend the Justices who delivered this landmark judgment on behalf of the Nigerian people and we believe that the Nigerian masses will be better for it.
“Local government autonomy will reduce the problem of Nigeria by at least 50 per cent. It will reduce infrastructural gap, and improve community and food security.
“Local Governments will return us back to the good years of functional and well-run primary education and health care system, while security will be improved,” he said.
He also said that the local government would be able to recruit, train and retrain local security operatives to carry out intelligence gathering to fight crimes.
He added that vocational skills for women and youths will become the order of the day.
“To our governors, since the supreme court is the final court in the land, we trust them to obey the judgment.
” We appeal to the governors to see the judgment as a necessity towards national growth and development.
“We also warn the political class at the local government level to be transparency and accountable,” he said
Ambali said NULGE would partner with all anti-corruption agencies to track local government fund to ensure it is judiciously used for the good of the Nigerian people.
He also called on the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC), to, henceforth, publish local government allocation monthly in order for the masses to be able to hold their political leaders accountable on how they disburse and apply local government funds.
“We hope this will reduce mass poverty in the land. It will also bring about political inclusiveness, it will stem insecurity in the land and lead to creation of jobs through vocational skills acquisition and empowerment at local government level.
“It will also lead to reduction of infrastructural gaps; rural roads will be opened, food security will be guaranteed and community GDP will be increased,” Ambali added.
