President of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Alhaji Ibrahim Khaleel, has accused state governors of being the major stumbling block to the attainment of local governments’ independence as a tier of government in the country.
Khaleel said the governors stop local government councils’ from having reasonable progress and development by always blocking them from becoming truly independent and wielding their powers as chief executives of their respective states.? This he said was due to the too much power vested on them (governors).
Answering questions from reporters in Kano yesterday on the union’s upcoming national special delegates’ conference slated to take place in Edo State next month, Khaleel said governors “no longer respect constitution and are more dictatorial than military administrators as whatever they say is final. It is regrettable that elected governors are more dictatorial than military governors who always listen to their people”.
He said the essence of local government administration in the country was to bring government closer to the grassroots but pointed out that the 1999 constitution which gave governors a window to retard the local system by refusing to give it the free hand to operate must be reviewed.
He also expressed concern that while state assemblies are supposed to checkmate the governors, they have equally regrettably taken sides with them even though they are supposed to be part of the local government administration that help in stopping the injustice being done to local governments.
Khaleel said there must be democracy at local government level all over the federation, saying the current trend whereby governors appoint caretakers, sole administrators or interim management officers for local government instead of allowing for proper election to take place after winning lawmakers over must be totally discouraged if truly Nigeria is to practice democracy.
He described as cheating, the “sundry deductions and the so-called local government joint account” which he said most governors use to “short-change” their council areas, adding that elections for councils’ leaders must hold and all allocations meant for local governments must be given to the councils directly in order to transform the life of rural populace.