Governors of Nigerian States on Saturday came very hard at the President Mohammadu Buhari-led Federal Government, calling it a failure in providing basic amenities for the people.
The brickbat is a response to Wednesday's sketchy criticisms by the Country's Minister of State for National Planning, Chief Clement Agba who blamed the 36 State Governors for what he says is the rising poverty and hunger index in Nigeria.
And, less than 24 hours after Minster Agba's comments, President Buhari himself at a different forum fired a more denigrating salvo, accusing State Governors of being responsible for the under development of local communities by their stealing of funds meant for Local Government Councils from the Federation account.
In an attempt to extricate itself from the barrage of the Federal Government, the Governors' Forum in a statement signed by its Director, Media and Public Affairs Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo described the Minister's outburst as a veiled and deliberate effort to protect his paymasters and politicize very critical issues of national importance.
According to the Governors, the dereliction identified by the Minister of State for National Planning lies strictly at the doorstep of the Federal Government which he represents.
The Governors noted that the Federal Government has failed in its primary duty of security of lives and property thereby allowing bandits, insurgents and kidnappers to turn the country into a killing field.
"This dereliction of duty from the Centre is the main reason why people have been unable to engage in regular agrarian activity and in commerce. How does a Minister whose Government has been unable to ensure security, law and order have the temerity to blame Governors". the statement observed.
The Governors' Forum noted that the Federal Government had in 2019 promised to take 100million Nigerians out of poverty with the country now recording 130million citizens living below the globally accepted poverty line of one dollar a day.
"Under the current administration that Mr. Agba is a Minister, the national cash cow, the NNPC had failed to remit statutory allocation to States in several months. The situation had compelled Governors to rely on other sources of revenue like SFTAS program and other interventions anchored by NGF to fund state activities while monies budgeted for such Federal Ministries as Agriculture, Rural Development and Humanitarian Affairs are not being deployed in the direction of the people", it added.
