People think governors are thieves and resources wasters —Nasir El-Rufai
Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state on Monday revealed that majority thinks state governors are thieves and resources wasters.
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The governor made this known while speaking on the state government investment, Kadinvest on Channels Tv.
He said, “We came into office at a very bad time in terms of economic viability,” he said. We came in when oil prices were crashing into the twenties and we had inherited bureaucracies that were designed and structured around $100 per barrel oil. We had inherited wages at that level as well. And all of a sudden, there was this collapse and Nigeria went into a recession.”
Daily Times gathered that El-Rufai noted that despite the recession, people still expected progress to happen “overnight”.
“Governors are the most suspected elected officials,” El-Rufai continued. “Everyone thinks Governors are just thieves and we are wasting state resources, we are not doing anything. Governors are assumed to be taking security votes. When people hear security votes, they think it is a slush fund for Governors. So we have a very negative image out there.
“Meanwhile, we have one of the most difficult jobs in the world. And we are subnational; our capacity to borrow is limited. The Federal Government can print money. We cannot.
“Other than Lagos, very few state governments have room to do what they can do because apart from Lagos virtually every state in Nigeria relies on Federation Account transfers. And when they go down, you are in trouble.
