Buhari carries the can for Nigerians’ poverty, as he fails to provide security, they say
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
All 36 Governors have collectively voiced their push back against Muhammadu Buhari’s claim their stealing from the treasury and wasteful spending are the reasons for the shameful level of poverty of Nigerians.
Buhari denied last Thursday responsibility for the 133 million languishing in poverty – 65 per cent or 86 million of them in the North – weeks after the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) stunned him with the report.
But in their reaction, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) accused him of failing in his duty to tackle insecurity that hinders economic activities across the land and is the fulcrum of poverty as it prevents agriculture which employs the most labour.
“Governors focus on building gigantic projects such as flyovers, airports etc that are visible in the state capitals, rather than building roads that would halt post harvest losses for the farmers,” Budget and National Planning Minister Clem Agba said in Abuja last Wednesday.
Govs, council Chairmen collude to steal public funds
The next day, Buhari said: “What they [Governor] did, this is my personal experience, if the money from the Federation Account to the state is about N100 million, N50 million will be sent to the [local government] Chairman, but he will sign that he received N100 million.
“The Governor will pocket the balance and share it with whoever he wants to share it with.
‘‘And then the Chairman of the local government must see how much he must pay salaries, and to hell with development. When he pays the salaries of the big men, the balance he will put in his pocket.
‘‘This is what’s happening. This is Nigeria. It’s a terrible thing; you cannot say the person who was doing this is not educated. He was a qualified lawyer, he was experienced, yet he participated in this type of corruption.”
“It’s a terrible thing,” he moaned, but did not say he did anything with the knowledge – like reporting the case to the graft busters for investigation pending when the Governor would be prosecuted after leaving office.
“So, it’s a matter of conscience, whichever level we find ourselves.”
Buhari moaned, but did not say he acted on his “personal” knowledge of looting – like reporting it to the graft busters for investigation pending when the Governor would be prosecuted after leaving office.
“It’s a terrible thing,” he moaned, but did not say he did anything with the knowledge – like reporting the case to the graft busters for investigation pending when the Governor would be prosecuted after leaving office.
Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) President Hakeem Ambali accused him of failing to prevail on Governors in his All Progressives Congress (APC) to sign the Local Government Autonomy Bill into law.
Council autonomy would prevent Governors from stealing Council, Ambali said.
Buhari’s ‘dereliction of duty’
Governors also blamed Buhari in a statement they issued through NGF Media and Public Affairs Director AbdulRazaque Bello-Barkindo.
“It is important to put on record the progress made by state governors in the administration of their states, which have witnessed tremendous progress in recent times.
“Governors have undertaken projects where they, in conjunction with their people, deem them fit for purpose,” the statement explained, according to The PUNCH.
“This dereliction of duty from the center is the main reason why people have been unable to engage in regular agrarian activity and commerce.
“Today, rural areas are insecure, markets are unsafe, travel surety is improbable and life for the common people generally is harsh and brutish.
“The opinion, therefore, of one minister, based on a survey of 56,000 households in a country of 200 million people can never diminish the good work that 36 pro-poor-minded governors are doing for this country.”
Abuja fails to explain how it is tackling poverty
The NGF accused Agba of attempting to convey the notion that rising levels of hunger and lack are not peculiar to Nigeria, instead of telling citizens what he and Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed are doing to ameliorate hardship.
“Mr Agba explained that their government, through many of its social security programs, has been dedicating resources to alleviating hardship, and then goes further to accuse state governors of misdirecting resources to projects that have no impact on the people.
“While rightly pointing out that 72 per cent of the poverty in Nigeria is found in the rural areas, the minister said that the rural populace had been abandoned by governors.”
__________________________________________________________________
Related articles:
Northern CSOs dismiss Buhari’s poverty fight, seek probe of palliative spending
__________________________________________________________________
Agaba attempt to ‘protect his paymasters’
The NGF decried “Mr Agba’s veiled and deliberate effort, as a minister, to protect his paymasters and politicise very critical issues of national importance,” the statement added, per The PUNCH.
“The primary duty of any government is to ensure the security of lives and property, without which no sensible human activity takes place.
“But the Federal Government, which is responsible for the security of lives and property, has been unable to fulfil this covenant with the people, thus allowing bandits, insurgents, and kidnappers to turn the country into a killing field, maiming and abducting people, in schools market squares and even on their farmlands.
“How can a defenceless rural population maintain a sustainable lifestyle of peace and harmony when their lives are cut prematurely, and they wallow permanently in danger?
“How does a minister whose government has been unable to ensure security, law, and order have the temerity to blame governors?
“Under the current administration that Mr Agba is minister, the national cash cow, the NNPC, has failed to remit statutory allocations to states in several months.
“The situation had compelled governors to rely on other sources of revenue like the SFTAS program and other interventions anchored by the NGF, to fund state activities while monies budgeted for such federal ministries like agriculture, rural development, and humanitarian affairs, are not being deployed in the direction of the people.”
