LAGOS, Federal Republic of Nigeria. Constitutional lawyer, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), on Tuesday said state governors who cannot pay salaries of civil servants in their states do not deserve any bail- out from the federal government due to the financial crisis crippling the affairs of some states in the federation.
Speaking in a chat with Daily Independent, Sagay, who condemned the continued dependence of states on the federal government for monthly allocations, said only state governors who executed jobs such as roads infrastructure and other task that is the responsibility of the federal government should be given any financial assistance.
“In principle, they don’t deserve any bailout from the federal government except those who carry out and infrastructural projects on behalf of the federal government.
“Most of these states are so dependent on the monthly allocations they receive from the federal government that they cannot think of ways they can internally generate their own resources.”
“It never happened in the First Republic because when you say federation, what you have is federating units which are independent and autonomous, having full powers controlling their resources, who then, out of those resources, send a proportion, a fraction, to the federal government who doesn’t have its own resources.”
Also speaking, elder statesman and Afenifere chieftain, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, said many of the state governors, even though they can’t pay salaries of civil servants are still drawing security votes and are living their normal lives as if nothing is wrong.
“The state governors shouldn’t be given any bail-out. The electorates are not that daft. Many of these governors even though they can’t pay salaries are still drawing their security votes. How do they explain that? The governors are getting fat while the citizens are suffering,” he said.
Credit: Daily Independent (Nigeria)
