‘Nigeria doesn’t need 36 governors,’ Emir of Kano says

monjola sotubo

March 11, 2016 11:48 AM

The Emir made the comments on Thursday, March 10, 2016, while speaking at the inaugural lecture of the Awujale of Ijebuland, Sikiru Adetona in Lagos.

Emir of Kano-Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

Sanusi also described the current system of government being practiced in Nigeria as wasteful.

The Emir made the comments on Thursday, March 10, 2016, while speaking at the inaugural lecture of the Awujale of Ijebuland, Sikiru Adetona in Lagos, The Cable reports.

“You sometimes wonder if anyone needs to tell any group of persons that you don’t need 36 governors, 36 deputy governors, each with commissioners, special advisers, a president, his vice, 36 ministers,” Sanusi said.

“Simple arithmetic would tell that if you have this structure, you are, first of all, doomed to spend 80 per cent to 90 per cent of your earnings in maintaining these public officers.

“This is really is a big problem in Nigeria. I remember as the CBN governor when I raised the point that 80 per cent of government revenue was being used to maintain 1million public officers, leaving 20 per cent for over 160 million Nigerians, my state governor reacted by saying the federal government was planning to recruit more people.

“The situation we are in isn’t an unforeseen one so we need to go back to the basics and basic common sense by tailoring our political system to the level of development and resources of the country. We need to free up the resources and invest them so as to free ourselves from these problems we are having,” he added.

Sanusi also said that the system is expensive and unsustainable and advised that the number of public officers in the country should be reduced.

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