By Samson Adeyanju<\/p>\n
The President-General of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Comrade Akeem Olatunji Ambali, has hailed local government autonomy as a key to unlocking sustainable grassroots development in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
In his speech at the 4th Annual Conference of the Forum of Heads of Local Government Administration in Nigeria, held from November 20th to 21st, 2024, Ambali stressed the significant strides made with the fiscal autonomy granted to local governments by the Supreme Court, under President Bola Tinubu\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fiscal autonomy granted to local governments will transform governance at the grassroots level, reducing rural-urban migration, curbing insecurity, creating jobs, and improving the livelihoods of rural dwellers,\u201d Ambali said, calling on local government administrators to effectively implement the autonomy\u2019s objectives.<\/p>\n
He outlined key goals, including direct allocation of funds to local government accounts, the abolition of caretaker committees, and the election of chairmen and councilors.<\/p>\n
However, Ambali stressed that further reforms are needed, including the constitutional recognition of local government service commissions and the abolition of the State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIEC).<\/p>\n
Ambali also highlighted critical issues affecting local government service delivery, such as staff welfare, the outdated 2014 scheme of service, and the need for a rural allowance to support workers in remote areas.<\/p>\n
On the imminent implementation of the new minimum wage by December 1, 2024, Ambali warned local government heads to ensure compliance, threatening to shut down non-compliant councils.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s ensure local governments are not ghost towns during working hours,\u201d Ambali urged, stressing the importance of motivating staff and prioritizing their welfare for effective governance.<\/p>\n
The conference, which promises to be a turning point in local government administration, concluded with a call to action: \u201cAluta Continua, Victoria Acerta!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Samson Adeyanju The President-General of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Comrade Akeem Olatunji Ambali, has hailed local government autonomy as a key to unlocking sustainable grassroots development in Nigeria. In his speech at the 4th Annual Conference of the Forum of Heads of Local Government Administration in Nigeria, held from November […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":56566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56567,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56565\/revisions\/56567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}