Governors are parasites, states should be scrapped out - Babachir Lawal

Babachir Lawal, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), has described Nigerian Governors as parasites.

He called for the scrapping of States.

Lawal said it was better for the country to have only Federal and Local Governments.

The former SGF stated this on Wednesday when he addressed journalists in Abuja, saying that Governors ”take a major share of the country’s resources” and “abuse” it.

He was responding to the question of whether he would like to see changes as the National Assembly attempts to amend the constitution.

“I am not a constitutional expert, but i know if I had my way in the setup of this country, the governors in the middle are just parasites that are taking the major share of the resources that are supposed to go to states, they abuse it.

“If I had my way, there would be federal government and local governments, such that the resources that are due to the state would be shared equally with the local government at that level and a lot of things will be done.

In the case of the federal government, we understand why it has to be federal government. There are some institutions that have to be national in itself.

“The army for example, the federal police must be there, foreign affairs must be there, but the states, we can devolve the powers back of the states to the local governments.

“At the local government, they are closer to the people, because they are closer to the people, people are able to monitor them. People are able to get in touch with them, people are able to check their excess if any,” Lawal said.