By Bimbola Oyesola
The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has warned the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the two major political parties in Nigeria, who are set for their primaries this weekend, not to pick anyone who is opposed to local government autonomy as presidential candidate.
President of NULGE, Akeem Ambali, charged the political parties not to give their tickets to political aspirants who openly opposed local government autonomy, noting that such candidates will bring bad luck to their political parties in 2023.
The NULGE president made this assertion against some aspirants who held sway in their states, but pilfered and plundered local government allocations during their tenure, noting that such was the only selfish reason they openly oppose passage of the Local Government Autonomy Bill.
He said, “We are warning political parties going into their primaries not to give their tickets to aspirants who openly oppose local government autonomy, as such candidates will bring bad luck to their political parties at the polls come 2023.
“It is regrettable that those who held sway in their states but pilfered and plundered LG allocations during their tenure, which is the only selfish reason they openly oppose passage of Local Government Autonomy bill, are now jostling to become the President of Nigeria.”
NULGE submitted that such leaders were not only unpatriotic but they were also anti-people, hence, Nigerians must not allow them to be victorious by voting them out of office.
Ambali added that “if the myriads of problems confronting Nigeria like insecurity, poverty, joblessness, infrastructural decay, women and youth empowerment, agriculture and rural economy are to be addressed, and if security and overall development in all sectors of, the economy must be achieved, local government autonomy is the only way to go. Hence Nigeria needs a fortright and progressive leader, not a pretender, to do this.”