Don't Play Politics With My Statement on Local Government Administration in Nigeria - Edo NULGE President.

By Lucky Isibor

The leadership of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employee (NULGE) Edo State chapter has described the current media exchanges supposedly between NULGE  and Edo the state government as needless, uncalled for and the handiwork of mischief makers who are seeking ways to score undeserving and cheap mark from a non existing issue.

                  Lazarus Adorolo

       Edo State NULGE President

Edo State President of NULGE, Comrade Lazarus Imokhai Adorolo, who stated this in Benin at a press briefing said "my attention has been drawn to the interview I granted the News Agency of Nigeria correspondent in Benin, last week which many have laboriously tried to put under various colouration different from the original intent". 

" For as much as I would say that the reporter may have a professional right for his choice of headline or chose part of the interview that suits his sensationalism, the truth of the matter is that I granted an interview where National issues were discussed with little or no reference to a particular state. NULGE's  Media Officer may have responded to this in his rebuttal but it is important to underscore the fact that the issues I raised in the interview should not in any way be politicized".

The  Edo NULGE President said "as one of the leaders of the Union in Nigeria, a major stakeholder in the Local Government system and indeed the President of the Union in Edo State, with all sense of modesty, not only that I know and understand the challenges of Local Government in Nigeria and Edo State, I am also competent to make statement about it.

It is a notorious fact that local government Administration in Nigeria has been  crippled and what led to its present sorry state deserved to be addressed and readdressed by all, even Mr President, Mohammadu Buhari also attested to this fact. 

In the said interview, we reviewed the problems confronting  the Local Governments and the causes. Like I have stated in my numerous interview with press, we identified resources as the major challenge among others and the contradictions or lacuna, if you like, in the 1999 Constitution as the source of the problem and that State Governments explore these Constitutional errors to exercise excruciating control over Local Government and its resources. But this is a national problem that is not restricted or limited to Edo State."

Comrade Lazarus Imokhai Adorolo, said "it is a fact that individual state has their peculiar problems and Edo State is not an exception. Whatever challenges the Local Government is facing in Edo State is  known to all the parties and other stake holders. To the best of my knowledge, while some are receiving attention, some are also still pending."

"I then make bold to say that no body should play politics with my position on Local Government Administration in Nigeria. Similarly, I am calling on all those who wish to take undue advantage of the issue to put all their energies into making the Local Government better in the interest of all".