– While some governors may be thinking of how to better their states, some basically depend on handouts from the federal government
– The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has confirmed this as its Enugu state chairman mentioned the zone with very lazy governors in Nigeria
Instead of wearing their thinking caps and coming up ideas that would help develop their various states, governors in the south-eastern part of Nigeria have decided to remain lazy and dependent on the federal allocations, Chukwuma Igbokwe, the chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Enugu state, has revealed.
Daily Post reports that The Punch quoted Igbokwe as saying the governors are partly responsible for the poor development of the area as they have refused to harness natural resources in their states to generate additional revenue.
According to him, the effect of the financial crunch that has hit the country would not have been felt much in the south-east if successive governors had made positive impacts in their various states since 1999.
“The problem with the South-East is over-reliance on federal allocation by the state governors.
“Since 1999, the governors have been lazy; no attempt was made to harness abundant and viable natural resources available for revenue generation and development.
“The palm oil and cashew plantations, rice farms, poultries and similar ventures that were established across the South-East at industrial scale during the first and second republics are wasting away. They have all been abandoned.
“They can still be revived but the governors are not thinking about that, they only think of the monthly federal allocation,” Igbokwe reportedly said, while commending Anambra state which has been granted a waiver to export scent leaves.
While lamenting that the governors abandoned agriculture for federal handouts, the TUC chairman said: “I don’t see why the states cannot export palm oil and other agricultural products on a large scale.”
He however said the zone was not the most hit by the current economic recession facing the country as he added: “I can’t say that the South-East is the worst hit by the recession. Are South-East states not getting their allocations from the federation account?
“The only concern is that, in bad practice, the south-east has always taken the lead.
“By bad practice, I mean it is only in the south-east that you will see major contracts being awarded to people who will pocket the money and refuse to execute the projects.
“Our problem in the South-East is not using our natural resources and allocation to develop our people.”
Meanwhile, some Nigerians have criticised the governor of Imo state, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, for performing the durbar ceremony in Sokoto to mark the 10 anniversary of Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar.
Some of them wondered what he was doing in Sokoto while his state is unsettled. Some others also renewed the controversy that he is partly from the northern part of the country.
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