THE National President of Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Comrade Ibrahim Khaleel, is dead.
Comrade Khaleel reportedly collapsed while playing a game of badminton on Wednesday
evening in Abuja and was rushed to the National Hospital where he was confirm dead on arrival by doctors.
National Record picked the sad news of Comrade Khaleel’s sudden demise from the social media but had since confirmed the tragic passage from multiple sources within labour circle.
Comrade Khaleel until his death, was also the National Treasurer of the Nigeria Labour Congress. He represented the NLC on the Governing Board of the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) where he chaired the Audit Committee of the Board.
In the wake of the ongoing crisis that engulfed the NSITF following the suspension of the management of the organisation, Comrade Khaleel was appointed as chairman of the Audit panel set up by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, to investigate the activities of the suspended management.
Although the Audit Panel was given two weeks within which to investigate and submit its report, it had up to the sudden death of Comrade Khaleel not done so as it reportedly got more weeks to do a thorough job.
Comrade Khaleel was a graduate of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where he studied Accountancy. He also obtained MBA from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi.
Comrade Khaleel attended a Senior Executive Course of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) from where he bagged Member of the National Institute (mni).
Until his death, he was a staff of Kano State Ministry of Local Government. His remains will leave Abuja by 11am on Thursday for Wudil local government of Kano State where he will be interred later in the afternoon.
He is survived by his wife, children and an aged mother, who is said to be over 100 years old.
His legacy in NULGE
Comrade Khaleel’s greatest legacy as National President of NULGE will remain his campaign
for the autonomy of the local government system in Nigeria.
Throughout his leadership of the union that spanned over 8 years, Comrade Khaleel popularised the struggle for local government autonomy not only within the union but even more in the Nigerian political space where he led street protests, and advocacy campaigns to State Houses of Assembly, State Government Houses and the National Assembly in Abuja.
This earned him the title of Mr Autonomy on the campaign trail as state councils of his union designed hats with the name boldly inscribed.
