Since February 16, 2025 that the Osun State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress directed local government workers to stay at home following fears of possible breakdown of order over plan by former local government officials to resume office, the people of the state have been denied of services and good governance that the third tier of government should offer.
Findings by The Point revealed that official activities have remained grounded in local governments following the workers’ withdrawal of service.
As the people suffer hardship, they also lack political leadership at the local government, thus feeling shut out of the dividends that come with the third tier of governance.
The crisis to administer the local government between elected public functionaries on the platform of All Progressives Congress and People’s Democratic Party has also impacted negatively on the commercial activities within and around the local government secretariats across the state.
The two political parties remained adamant about their own interpretation of existing judgements delivered at varying times by State, Federal, and Federal Courts of Appeal and laid claim to the right to govern at the third tier of government.
Visits to some local government secretariats revealed the absence of hustling and bustling that used to characterise the secretariats daily apart from weekends.
It was observed that food vendors and other traders that used to transact at the council areas have relocated to other places as the secretariats appear desolated on a daily basis.
Each of the 30 local government areas and Modakeke Area Office have reportedly lost so much in terms of internally generated revenue since the logjam as workers no longer collect taxes from traders and neither do they render services to residents who would like to have their court marriages or obtain other important official documents.
Sources claimed that the councils have lost millions of naira in about six weeks of the paralysis of activities.
One of the workers at the council revealed that the spillover of financial loss will surely have long-term adverse effects on the finances of local governments, adding that it may not be easy to recover the loss of the present predicament if allowed to persist.
Many indigenes that needed to collect their certificates of local government origin for admission into tertiary institutions and some for job employment opportunities have been in a dilemma.
Community services such as clearing of gullies, sanitation and environmental monitoring for healthy living which are core of the jobs of local government workers have been abandoned as workers continue to shun their offices.
The Point correspondent discovered that some of the council workers could no longer endure their idleness and had sought for alternative businesses to run as the impasse lasted.
In fact, some of the workers, who claimed that their conscience had been pricking them for collecting salaries without resuming duties, had threatened to mobilise their colleagues to work.
The workers who described themselves as a faction of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employee, Osun chapter, said there was a need for them to resume work in interest of the general public and local government administration.
The faction described the protracted withdrawal of services as the height of irresponsibility and shared wickedness, saying members of the public have been subjected to unnecessary hardship with denial of basic government services.
Under the auspices of Association of Concerned local Government Staff in Osun State, the group of employees accused the NULGE President, Nathaniel Ogungbangbe of politicizing the union and flagrantly disobeying its constitution by insisting that services be withdrawn at the third tier of government.
State Coordinator of the NULGE faction, Adedayo Adekunle and Secretary, Akin Adepoju urged workers to return to work, dismissing security threats to their life.
However, neither the aggrieved workers who asked others to resume, nor the entire workforce had not been seen at council secretariats.
Similarly, the workers had shunned entreaties by the reinstated councillors and chairmen of APC for them to resume duties. Their chairman, Abiodun Idowu, explained that they only stroll in and out of secretariats without doing anything concrete, noting that the abandonment of the council offices by workers has been affecting smooth running of government.
Some public affairs analysts including Dayo Shobowale, Fatai Tijani, and Funso Babarinde have said the crisis may linger until the court has final pronouncement on the issue.
Meanwhile, a 15 member delegation of national leadership of NULGE, despite admitting that grounding of activities at councils has been affecting official affairs, threw its weight and support behind the continuous stay at home order for all local government employees in view of the current occupation of the council secretariats by the opposition party members in the state.
