NULGE holds national women conference in Uyo
The National Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, is holding its first-ever national women conference in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
Speaking at the press briefing, the national president of NULGE, Olatunji Ambali said the Union would use the conference to discuss issues affecting the local governments.
Mr Ambali lamented that the state governors were conniving with the state houses of assembly to exploit the local government through joint account.
He said that the Union demands the scrapping of joint account to allow the allocation of the local government to be paid directly into local government accounts from the federal government.
“NULGE is also clamouring for full financial autonomy for the local government. The local government allocation should be directly paid into local government accounts. The lacuna in the 1999 constitution called joint account allocation committee in section 162 of the constitution is no longer acceptable to NULGE.
“JAAC must be scrapped. It is a conduit pipe through which local government resources are being stolen and diverted by state political actors. Let local government funds be credited to local accounts,” he said.
He said that the myriads of challenges bewildering the country are predominantly in the rural communities because the local governments have been rendered ineffective by the state government.
Ambali further noted that the independent national electoral commission, INEC should be allowed to conduct local government elections and not state electoral commissions.
“We clamour for political autonomy for local governments where the Independent National Electoral Commission would be saddled with the responsibility of conducting local government elections.
“The creation of state independent electoral commission as a result the 1999 constitution is an aberration. It has brought in a lot of abuse and lack of transparency in conduct of local government elections.
“What we are witnessing now is not election, but coronation, appointment and promotion of political cronies of governors to go into the leadership position of government, thereby creating an avenue to syphon local government resources,” he said.
He noted that a financially independent local government system is a panacea for most of the country’s challenges like insecurity, poverty and unemployment.
The conference themed “The role of women in engendering peace and security”, is attended by of NULGE drawn from all the 36 state chapters in the country.
