The 774 local government councils in the country are presently in dire financial strait and unable to cater to people at the lowest level in accordance with their constitutional mandate due to the actions and inactions of state governors.
Following the poor state of affairs in the local government councils across the country, the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees accused state governors of crippling the third tier of government.
NULGE also raised the alarm that 34 out of the 36 state governors were guilty of diverting local government funds, leaving the government closest to the people with inadequate funds to develop the communities.
Out of the 36 states, NULGE said only Rivers and Jigawa were clean of the allegation, while the remaining state governors had refused to steer clear of local government council funds despite a directive by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit for them to desist from the act. The governors, the union alleged, had rather devised a means to manipulate the NFIU guidelines and continued to divert the funds.
The National President, NULGE, Ambali Olatunji, noted that it was a deliberate act by the state governors as they denied the grassroots of the effective leadership the masses desired, adding that the diversion of resources meant that development in the grassroots would continue to be undermined.
He stated that the governors’ refusal to conduct local government elections was also an attempt to deny the grassroots the right to have political and democratic leadership accountable to them.
