Fear Of Bandit Attacks Forces Local Government Workers Out Of Duty Posts

Renewed surge in bandit attacks in rural communities across the country has forced hundreds of local government workers to abandon their duty posts.

LEADERSHIP Weekend learnt that primary schools, health centres and community development offices in several remote locations have been hit hardest, with entire staff abandoning their posts in communities repeatedly targeted by gunmen.

The organised labour said the development had left schools, clinics and community offices unmanned, leaving widen gap in grassroots governance.

The National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) said the situation called for urgent implementation of full local government autonomy and establishment of stronger local policing systems to contain escalating insecurity.

NULGE national president, Comrade Aliyu Haruna Kankara, told LEADERSHIP Weekend that the bulk of the union’s members now operate under severe threats, with many unable to reach their offices for weeks.

He said over 80 per cent of workers deployed to villages and remote settlements remained at risk as banditry spreads across large swathes of local government areas.

Kankara said the rising attacks had crippled essential service delivery and forced a fresh wave of rural-to-urban migration by workers seeking safety.

He added that the current security breakdown showed how Nigeria’s grassroots governance structure had collapsed under years of neglect.

“These attacks are majorly happening in the local government areas, or rural areas. And that is where over 80% of our members are based, and that’s where they are serving.

“Because of these attacks, our members are facing significant challenges. And these challenges include, direct threats to their safety, and even to their lives. And that was their family, and their relatives,” he said, “The only real mechanism we have of coping with these threats is a community-based approach, and that is people coming together to see how they can protect themselves. Well, the security agencies are also doing their best, but you know, it’s not enough. And we also have instances where our members are even migrating from the rural areas to the cities, because of these attacks, and their families.

“We also have situations where our members cannot access their offices, because there are so many local government that are, that experience these serious attacks by bandits. So, people are scared to go there. So, you have all these instances where people cannot access their offices, cannot access their places of work.

“There are so many remote villages where we have primary schools, we have health centres, we have community development offices. And we all have our members attached to these facilities, but because of bandit attacks, some of these offices cannot move, some of these places, you cannot go there. Members cannot go there”.

The NULGE leader argued that local governments, which traditionally play a frontline role in community-level security, have been rendered helpless by decades of financial dependency on state governments.

He said the inability of councils to recruit, equip or coordinate community vigilance groups stemmed from their lack of direct funding and operational autonomy.

He noted that recent kidnapping incidents in villages highlight these structural gaps. In previous decades, he said, local councils mobilised hunters, vigilantes and traditional neighbourhood watches long before crises escalated.

However, today, he said, councils cannot deploy even modest emergency funds without waiting for state-level approval, a delay that often proves fatal during attacks.

Kankara said the push for full autonomy was inseparable from security reform, adding that empowering councils would allow communities to organise early intelligence gathering, strengthen civil-security links, and build coordinated response networks.

He said autonomy would revive rural development projects that once kept young people engaged and employed, reducing the pool of potential recruits for armed groups.

“I’m still appealing to President Bola Tinubu, in the interest of our democracy, in the interest of our country, for us to save our country, should empower our local government by implementing full autonomy.

“The Supreme Court has already decided in favour of local government autonomy, in favour of direct funding to local government for the past one year and up to this moment, I am talking to you now, no local government in Nigeria, no single local government, no local government in Nigeria is receiving direct allocation from the federal account”, he said.

“This has  greater implication for public service delivery. This public service delivery, this public service I’m talking about includes security. We have been arguing that the only way to address the security challenges of this country is to empower our local government.

“If we empower our local government, I’m sure these security issues will be addressed. At least more than 50 percent of the security challenges we have will be addressed. Because if you have a functional local government that is functioning very well, their major task will be to address the security challenge within their locality”, he added.

He also said NULGE fully backs ongoing calls for the establishment of state police, but believes the country must go further by creating local government police units to complement federal and state formations.

He said decentralised policing would give rural communities officers who understand local terrain, customs, and community actors, an advantage national security agencies lack.

Kankara warned that Nigeria cannot continue relying exclusively on centralised policing structures whose numbers and spread fall short of national needs.

He said fears of political misuse, often cited by critics of state police, could be addressed through independent police commissions with clear oversight mechanisms. He maintained that the benefits of grassroots policing far outweigh the risks.

According to him, autonomy remains the central issue shaping governance failures at the local level.

He said decades of centralised control have weakened institutions, widened poverty, disconnected rural communities from government and undermined national security.