Former Governor of Jigawa State and Nigeria’s former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sule Lamido, has slammed Northern Governors over their recent trip to the United States to the United States (U.S.) to attend a peace summit organized by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP).
Lamido, in a Facebook post, said the trip exposed the Governors’ ignorance of the country’s constitution, saying that security is solely the responsibility of the federal government because it is on the executive-legislative list.
According to the statement by Lamido titled ‘Advancing our shame and embarrassment beyond our frontiers!’: “Our Northern Governors as concerned leaders traveled all the way to the United States of America to attend a lecture at the American Institute for Peace titled ADVANCING STABLITY IN NORTHERN NIGERIA as to find a lasting solution to the intractable problems of insecurity bedeveling their respective states.
“Their concern commendable as it were, ended up exposing their ignorance at understanding the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria the very instrument which gave them the legitimacy and the authority to be Governors!
“If the Governors had traveled to the US to engage on how to boost agriculture or health issues or any other pressing local problems listed on the Concurrent List of our Constitution this could be quite understandable! But to engage on issues which are on the Exclusive Legislative List such as Security says a lot of the substance they are made of.
“Security is a very wide subject which their Excellencies must have capacity to grasp. Most urban towns in their State lack portable drinking water, refuse dumps have taken over some streets; all these have precipitous Security health hazards. Our children attend primary schools under the trees and where there are built classes, they take their lessons sitting on the floor, yet the Security implications of this can not be discerned by their Excellencies.
“Deliberate and harshly induced poverty by unplanned government policies have made citizens lose their esteem, honor and self worth by lining up scrambling to collect palliative from patronizing and condescending leaders yet the Insecurity of this is of no worry or concern to them.