The Anambra State leadership of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees has raised concerns about an alleged illegal allocation of the state’s revenue windows to politicians.
This comes less than a month before Governor Willie Obiano’s term expires.
As a result, NULGE advised the general public to pay all local government revenues to LG employees rather than state government agents or politicians.
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Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, the state’s incoming governor, had threatened to revoke all revenue windows allocated to politicians through an executive order on the morning of his swearing-in while lamenting the state’s many revenue leakages.
Mr Chikwelu Adigwe, President of the Anambra NULGE, told members at the union’s secretariat in Awka that the majority of the revenue windows being sold out belong to local government areas.
Adigwe objected to the hijacking of the revenue windows, claiming that it rendered local government councils ineffective.
“We are doing everything we can during this transition period to ensure that the right things are done,” he said.
We have written to the transition committee and the state assembly to express our dissatisfaction with the continuous confirmation of transition committee chairmen rather than holding local government elections.
“We have it on good authority that the state revenue board is still allocating revenue windows to politicians right now, and we want to inform the governor-elect about this.”
“We’ve come to complain about how the system is operating today.” When we first joined the service, the system was not like this. Things have taken a turn for the worse.
“We were taught in school that there were three levels of government, but the local government has gradually become obsolete and non-existent.” The state is gradually taking away our jobs, but we will not allow this to continue.”
He also resolved to reclaim all revenue windows belonging to NULGE, including wheelbarrow levies, liquor licenses, and many others that the state government had taken away from them.
Adigwe also urged Soludo to hold local government elections within three months of his inauguration and to reconstitute the Local Government Service Commission to include local government workers rather than all politicians’ affairs, among other things.
“We have charged our members with going out and collecting revenue from their various local government councils.” Any shop owner who pays touts should be prepared to pay twice. “We are not preaching war here, but we will not avoid it,” he added.
He claimed that he had information that the state revenue board was allocating revenue windows to their cronies with the intent of hijacking the state’s resources, particularly as Obiano’s administration comes to an end.
