The former president of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Peter Esele, says corruption is endemic in states across Nigeria as the governors get away with it because Nigerians pay more attention to President Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr Esele stated this while reacting to a suggestion by governors that Mr Buhari’s regime should offer federal civil servants above 50 years a one-off retirement package to exit the service.

The former TUC leader accused the governors of being Nigeria’s biggest problem.

“They should face their states and allow the federal government to come up with such (a) decision on its own,” said Mr Esele. “After all, what have they, the governors, done in the areas of primary and secondary education which falls under their purview, even in the area of primary health care delivery?”

He also alleged that the governors had borrowed much money but avoided repayment.

“The governors are not telling us what they did with the money. I don’t know how many states in Nigeria you can put side-by-side with the amount they borrowed from the federal government and the Nigerian Stock Exchange,” he stated. “Our attention has been on the president, and that is why the governors are getting away with corruption because if we dig deep, corruption at the state level is unprecedented.”

Recently, Mr Buhari got two convicted governors, Jolly Nyame and Joshua Dariye, out of jail through presidential pardon.

The unionist also complained about the governors starving local councils of funds. According to him, the governors do as they like, including deciding the next president and what happens in the country.

“In the country today, you can have a disagreement between the federal government and the National Assembly. But there is no single state in Nigeria where you have a disagreement between the state legislators and state executive,” Mr Esele pointed out. “Whenever the legislators and executive are in bed, know that the citizens are suffering or will suffer for it later. That is what has been happening across the 36 states of the federation.”

Mr Esele added that members of the state assemblies expected to carry out checks on the executive were not doing so.

He claimed that even in budget screening, state assemblies were complacent as the budget brought in was hastily passed in two days.

“In all, the governors are our major problems in the country and cannot proffer solutions to what they are the root cause or what they have not been able to tackle in their states,” the ex-TUC leader stressed. 

(NAN)