Posted by Ahmed Bakare, a public commentator in Zamfara State, has denounced the statements made by Clement Agba, Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, in which he accused the federal government of failing to address national insecurity and blamed state governors.
According to Bakare, governors shouldn't be involved in security-related matters because the federal government of Nigeria is responsible for them entirely.
He claimed that in spite of this, state governments have kept providing operational vehicles to security agencies without raising any concerns with the federal government.
Because of the safety of their native citizens, he continued, “The State government is not in any way accountable for the insecurity situation of the states, but is merely assisting the Federal government to address the security challenges.”
“We are fully aware of the complex issues that Nigerians are facing, issues that President Buhari was supposed to have resolved before leaving office.”
According to reports, Clement Agba blamed the 36 governors for the country's rising poverty index, shocking the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), which prompted it to respond quickly by claiming that the minister's assertion was unjustified.
The public commentator scolded the minister for making such statements, pointing out that many of the issues Nigerians are currently facing are the result of mistakes made by the federal government, which lacked the vision to address certain problems in the nation.
He bemoaned that Clement Agba “shouldn't have made such utterances knowing full well that the security of lives and properties of the citizens constitutionally rests in the hands of the federal government, not states.”
“I want to be clear that state governments invest a lot more money in security issues than the federal government, which controls the nation's military and security agencies,”
For instance, the state of Zamfara has been wasting a significant amount of money on the military and security forces. Over 400 operational vehicles have been provided to the state's security agencies by the current Matawalle government alone.
“I'm not referring to the hundreds of working vehicles that previous State administrations have already given to the security agencies. The only thing the federal government has been doing is paying the salaries of the security operatives, not helping the security agencies in any way.
Indirectly telling Nigerians that terrorists and bandits are more powerful than the federal government is unacceptable under the terms of the Federal Republic of Nigeria's constitution, the minister said.
Since the majority of State governments solely depend on monthly federal allocations, Bakare claims Agba should have consulted with the ministers of Defense and Finance as well as other relevant authorities before going public and embarrassing himself and the federal government.