by Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna
Former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, has described as “lack-of-focus” the trip by three state governors to the United States of America (USA) to attend a lecture at the American Institute for Peace.
Lamido described the trip to the institute, titled ‘Advancing Stability in Northern Nigeria, as not only a “waste of resources,” but also an “advancement of shame and embarrassment beyond the country’s frontier.”
He stated this on his verified Facebook page, while also blaming the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the NIA for failing to properly guide the governors in this folly.
It will be recalled that, three State Governors from the North travelled recently to the USA on the mentioned issue.
Lamido, who was a former Foreign Affairs Minister during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure, added that their concerned, commendable as it were, ended up exposing their ignorance of understanding the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the very instrument that gave them legitimacy and authority to be governors!
He, however, stated that “If the governors had travelled to the US to engage on how to boost agriculture, health issues, or any other pressing local problems listed on the Concurrent List of our Constitution, this could be quite understandable!
“But, to engage on issues that are on the Exclusive Legislative List, such as security, says a lot about the substance they are made of. Security is a very wide subject, which their Excellencies must have the capacity to grasp.
“If the governors were serious and wanted to have a lecture on security, they need not have embarked on such a wasteful journey with the accompanying expenditure of flight tickets, hotels with all their aides and, above all, the valuable time wasted at the expense of running their states.
“Certainly, they could have gotten more than they wanted from our resourceful institutions, such as NIPSS in Kuru Jos, ASCON in Badagery, or even NIA! These three institutions have more materials, essays, and templates on the problems of security in Nigeria than the far-fetched American Institute.
“Most urban towns in their states lack portable drinking water, and refuse dumps have taken over some streets; all these have precipitous security and health hazards.
“Our children attend primary schools under trees, and where there are built classes, they take their lessons sitting on the floor; yet, the security implications of this cannot be discerned by their Excellencies.
“Deliberate and harshly-induced poverty by unplanned government policies has made citizens lose their esteem, honour, and self-worth by lining up and scrambling to collect palliatives from patronising and condescending leaders; yet, the insecurity of this is of no worry or concern to them.
“You have governors with no human empathy or respect for dignity or decency in an open show of shame, throwing money like confetti from an open Jeep, and people scrambling to pick it up – like the Governor of Niger State. Yet, they fail to see the security implications of all these!
“The governors could not have travelled without the facilitation of the Ministry or our Embassy in Washington. Nigeria and Nigerians now carry the image of advancing our shame and embarrassment beyond our frontiers caused by their Excellencies!
“One is inclined to believe Rufai Oseni of Arise TV when he recently said, ‘Nigerian madness has no bounds or limits.’ So, in Nigeria today, one’s biggest challenge is how one remains sane in this insane country!”
Similarly, Senator Shehu Sani, who represented Kaduna Central in the 2008 Senate, lamented that the Northern Governors, invited for a meeting on conflict resolution spent 3 full weeks without meeting with even a Governor of a state in US, describing it as “a waste of tax payers’ monies.”
His WhatsApp post reads, in parts: “Northern Governors invited by the US Government for a meeting on conflict resolution. They spent 3 weeks without meeting any top level US Government official,” it stated.
The post stressed that: “Attempt to secure them appointment with the US Vice President failed. Even most governors contacted to meet with them couldn’t give them appointments – a complete waste of time and Tax payers’ money.”