By: Adelowo Oladipo, Minna
A Chieftain of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in Niger state and former Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Hon. Jonathan Vatsa has advised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to stop pushing excess money to State Governors who he accused of doing little or nothing with the money.
Jonathan Vatsa said Nigerians are going through hardships today not because there are no money in the system but because some of them (Governors) have behaved very irresponsibly with a number of misplaced priorities.
Jonathan Vatsa who was reacting to the statement credited to President Tinubu that State Governors should stop building flyovers where there are less vehicular traffic and urged them to channel such resources to genuine infrastructural development.
In a Press statement he personally signed and made available to Journalists in Minna on Saturday, Jonathan Vatsa, pointed out that the construction of most of these flyovers are mere conduits pipe for the Governors.
Recalled that Niger state is among the States currently embarking on the construction of flyovers and has not been able to complete one since they were started three years ago.
Five flyovers are currently under construction in Minna the State capital alone.
The former Publicity Secretary of the party in the State, said from the tune of President Tinubu’s statement, it showed that he is aware that the Governors are the biggest problem of his administration and the party.
According to him, while the Governors smile home with huge amounts of money from the Federation Account every month, five times more than their predecessors, there is nothing to show for it in most of these states with poverty ravaging the people.
“These are agents of underdevelopment, the President should stop giving them excess money because the people don’t feel the impact”, Jonathan Vatsa thundered.
The former Commissioner believed that the resistance and backlash this administration is experiencing today from Nigerians due to the hardship in the country is caused by some of these governors who have personalized governance.
According to him and “Every economic hardship, every inflationary spike and every governance failure eventually finds its way to the doorstep of the President.”
He added that from “Meanwhile, many state governments escape rigorous public scrutiny despite controlling increasingly substantial financial resources.”
“That is why I want to strongly advise Mr. President to stop giving these governors excess money that has not translated to genuine development at the state levels” he added.
He added that, “When the President decides to be giving 36 individuals the entire proceeds from the fuel subsidy removal, thinking that it will trickle down, it’s a lie.”
He stressed that, “The Governors are there to sabotage your genuine intentions, and that’s why Nigerians are suffering.”
“Governors are now the agents of underdevelopment in this country but unfortunately every accusing fingers is pointed at President Tinubu for the hardship in the land”, he said.
He pointed out that ordinarily, no state governor should approach any bank or lenders for loan, going by the enormous resources coming from the federation account which many of them have publicly acknowledged, but regretted that some of these governors have plunged their state into unpayable loans.
He maintained that the Governors hide under the disguise of construction of “unfinished flyovers” even in state where you have less than 200 vehicles on the road just to pile up loans.
According to him, “Now that the President has realized that the governors are not utilising these enormous resources to the betterment of Nigerians, let him emulate late former Military Head of State, General Sani Abacha and former President Goodluck Jonathan who set up Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) and Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P), respectively and come up with his own trust fund.”
He also stated that, “That is the only way Mr. President can improve the lives of Nigerians through quality infrastructural transformation and reduce poverty among Nigerians”.
According to Jonathan Vatsa, untill this is done, Nigerians will continue to swim in poverty in the mix of plenty resources.
“These Governors see public funds as their personal resources, they personalized governance and see themselves as “the lord of the flies” because they control huge resources that has no place in the development of their various states”, he lamented
The outspoken former Commissioner also urged President Tinubu to enforce the supreme court judgement on local government autonomy, stressing that “the situation at the local government level is better imagined than experienced”.
He claimed that majority of the governors have continue to hijack local government allocations to the detriment of the people at the third tier of government, adding that “lack of autonomy for the local governments has crippled their activities and rendered them incapacitated to fight insecurity.
“Their resources are in the hands of the governors. They (local governments) get less than 10 percent of their allocation”, he submitted.
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