A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu, says state governors cannot excuse themselves from being major contributors to deepening poverty and insecurity in Nigeria.

Mr Okechukwu said this in Abuja while reacting to the position of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) that President Muhammadu Buhari should be blamed for the situation in the country.

“I am not the spokesman for the federal government or President Muhammadu Buhari; however, as a Buharist, the truism is that the governors have no excuse for contributing to the material conditions which deepened poverty and insecurity in Nigeria.

“They cannot exonerate themselves from the quagmire,” he said.

Mr Okechukwu added that the governors assumed the toga of Emperors and, like Pontus Pilate, cannot, too late in the day, wash off their hands, whereas they collected the 47 per cent of state and local government councils revenue allocations, plus derivation and bailout funds.

He said that the NGF should be reminded that all the federal roads, bridges, dams, primary health care, school feeding programmes, Anchor Borrowers Programme etc., were located in the 36 states of the country.

He asked how the NGF could excuse itself when it emasculated local government councils, state judiciary and legislatures out of self-interest.

“Regrettably, the outcome is abject poverty and general insecurity,” the APC chieftain said.

“By emasculating local councils funds, stopping independent funding of state judiciary and state legislatures, the NGF thereby compounded economic inequality and stimulated insecurity, for security is achieved via kinetic and civil strategic means.”

The governors had last week accused the Buhari regime of failing its primary assignment of securing the nation, hence turning the country into “a killing field” through banditry, kidnapping, and other myriads of insecurity.

In a statement by Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, the NGF Director of Media and Public Affairs, the governors alleged that the nonchalance of the regime further plunged Nigerians into poverty.

Their response followed the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clement Agba’s allegation that the governors underperformed in alleviating poverty among rural dwellers to make life more meaningful for rural communities.

“Hope the NGF did not forget the trillions bail out Buhari doled out to them for unpaid state salaries and pension arrears? Most of the emperors were not prudent with the bailout funds, and the fallout is despair, despondency and insecurity at the grassroots.”

“There is no doubt that the Governors-Emperors stymied democracy at the local councils, as none of the State Independent Electoral Commission ever conducted free, fair and transparent elections. The rigging of local councils elections and embracing of Joint Account proviso in the Constitution are the material conditions which enhanced corruption and insecurity at the grassroots.”

“And a hungry man is an angry man. One must admit that we made some unforced errors, but the Governors-Emperors cannot excuse themselves from the sordid scenario we find ourselves.”

(NAN)