National president of the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Comrade Ibrahim Khalil, yesterday in Katsina berated state governor for “allegedly strangulating the nation’s democracy by denying local governments their constitutional rights to operate as autonomous tier of government”.

Khalil at a press briefing, said state governors are the major problem of Nigeria, adding, “Because of their greed and selfishness, they killed our local governments by not allowing them to operate independently. According to records of the just concluded constituency public session conducted by the House of Representatives, over 350 constituencies supported the call the autonomy of local government areas and state assemblies, so if our state governors are really concerned about democracy, they should allow it to work now.”

He maintained that any state governor who believes in true democracy must support the separation of state/LG joint account as well as autonomy of the state assemblies, adding that anything contrary would be seen by Nigerians as sabotage.

“No governor, by the provisions of the Nigerian constitution is allowed to divert local governments’ funds, yet they deprive people in rural areas of funds”, he said.

He said NULGE on its part has organized rallies in support of local government autonomy, adding that rally for the North-west zone would hold on February 20, 2013 in Kaduna State. Khalil said the grand rally will take place in Abuja on the December 28, 2013, after it must have been held at the six geopolitical zones of the country, appealing to the general public to rally round the union in its crusade for local government autonomy.