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No council autonomy, no re-election in 2019, NULGE, CSOs tell governors, lawmakers

By Oluwaseun Akingboye, Akure 
20 March 2018   |   3:58 am
The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has threatened that governors and lawmakers, who vote against council autonomy in the ongoing constitutional review, will not get a re-election.

NULGE president, Comrade Ibrahim Khaleel

The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has threatened that governors and lawmakers, who vote against council autonomy in the ongoing constitutional review, will not get a re-election. 

The NULGE National President, Ibrahim Khaleel, alongside other Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), while addressing newsmen after a South-West meeting in Akure yesterday, said they would sustain their advocacy and ensure that the constitution review was achieved.

The union and the CSOs stressed that they would continue to adopt dialogues and effective sensitisation of stakeholders on the need to have a working and autonomous third tier of government in the country.

According to them, “We are engaging the public, Houses of Assembly Speakers on the need to pass the bill without further delay“Dialogue is the key to any public discourse. That is why we are here today and we will continue until we are successful with the struggle. No governor can be a governor without mandate of the people at the grass root.

“Before we mobilise ourselves to the National Assembly, they should understand that that position of authority is to help people and not to deprive them of their rights.”Khaleel, who urged the politicians not to play politics with the issue, noted that the third tier of government must have been functioning if truly the country is practising democracy. 

“Third tier must be in place to bring governance close to the people. We must not play politics with the issue. NULGE and civil society groups hinged the potency of Nigeria’s democracy on local council. There is no way the masses will go to poll without autonomy.

“We will definitely go back to mobilise them. The governors are still coming back to ask for their votes. That is why we come out with the slogan of no local council autonomy, no vote. “We are going to sensitise our people so that they will also engage their legislators on the need to pass the bill. We will redouble our efforts to ensure that the bill is passed.”

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