The Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has urged the Federal Government to establish a ‘special rural workers allowance’ to retain council workers at the local council level.

President of NULGE, Ambali Olatunji, who stated this yesterday, in Abuja at the maiden edition of NULGE national week, said local government workers operate within the rural community settings under an unconducive atmosphere, insecure environment along rural routes occupied by bandits and terrorists prone to regular kidnapping, death and rape.

He added: “They operate in communities without accessible roads, poor social amenities and incessantly falling into illness, we therefore appeal that to further motivate and compensate them, a Special Rural Allowance should be approved for local government workers in Nigeria like our colleagues, the teachers.”

NULGE believes that the scheme of service of 2006 has not only become obsolete, but can no longer measure up to the global trends of emerging issues in the area of productivity rating and motivation for Local Government workers.

It called on the government to recruit modern experts and ICT compliance officers and train them to enhance productivity.

The NULGE chief also submitted that to effectively monitor quality assurance, improved productivity and fiscal responsibility at the local government level, there is an urgent need to alter the 1999 Constitution to include both the Local Government Service Commission and Auditor General of the Local Government in the Constitution, both the Federal and State Sister Agencies were clearly stated in the Constitution with a clear omission of Local Government Agency.

According to him, there is also the need to expand the National Joint Negotiating Council membership to include the public service unions that constitute over 60 per cent of the government workforce, unions like NULGE, NUT, NASU, NUP, among others.

He added that council workers equally need a separate Negotiating Council to reduce industrial tension and speedy resolution of industrial frictions, which will promote industrial harmony in the public service

Ambali lamented the inadequate tools and equipment for council workers, saying, “we have qualified and experienced technocrats abundantly available in Nigeria’s local government service without necessary tools and equipment to operate. Some of the challenges of our people in the rural areas can be urgently addressed if there are available tools and equipment to operate.

“If we have graders to open rural roads, tad boilers to tar link roads, borehole drillers to sink boreholes, cesspit pit emptiers to evacuate sewage waste, ambulances for Primary Health Care Emergencies, vocational training tools and equipment to train Youth and Women on vocational Skills acquisition at the Council level, tractors, harvesters for the farms, the living standard at the community level will improve, local economy will grow, security will improve in area of food security, employment generation will be available, reducing crime will be easy and Nigerians will directly feel the impact of this government, this is the palliatives Nigeria needs more.”

The NULGE helmsman states that considering the strategic place of local government in national growth and development, there is need to establish the National Institute for Local Government Studies under the Federal Ministry of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs to scale up the skills of local government practitioners, political leaders and other gatekeepers like community development associations, youth leaders, women leaders and traditional leaders on emerging trends in the field of Local government administrations, financial re-engineering, conflict resolution, security management, political evolution and public administration to reposition Nigeria local government system for better administration.

Population growth, Ambali argued that the government must now set up machinery for the increase in the number of local councils.