Elderstateman
and former presidential aspirant, Dr. Lema Jibril has called for the
scrapping of the 36 states of the federation, including the 774 local
governments due to the cost of running government in the country.
He
said this on monday at a Special Memorial Lecture organised by the
Northern Youth Forum in honour of the late Dr. Abdulrahaman Okene, the
founder and first Chairman of the Northern Elders Forum, in Kaduna.
Jibril
described as unacceptable, the huge resources spent by the Federal
Government on the existing federal and local government structures.
He
said, “The present situation, whereby the Federal Government continues
to spend most of the nation’s resources on the maintenance of the 36
states and 774 local government structures is not helpful for the
development and growth of the country.
“Today,
the federal, states and local governments take 80 per cent of the
yearly budget just to service bureaucracy, leaving only 20 per cent for
development.
“From the President to
governors, the Senate, LGA chairmen, councilors – and all kinds of
advisers – all government workers constitute maybe, just about two per
cent of Nigeria’s 160 million population.”
He
further spoke about the disunity in the country, saying that there is
no more unity among the regions more especially the North.
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