TheCable

Muhammadu Sanusi II, emir of Kano, has described the current system of government practised in Nigeria as wasteful, saying the country does not need to have 36 governors.

Speaking in Lagos on Thursday during the inaugural lecture of Sikiru Adetona, the Awujale of Ijebu land, the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) lamented that about 80 per cent of the country’s resources is spent on government officials.

“You sometimes wonder if anyone needs to tell any group of persons that you don’t need 36 governors, 36 deputy governors, each with commissioners, special advisers, a president, his vice, 36 ministers,” he said.

“Simple arithmetic would tell that if you have this structure, you are, first of all, doomed to spend 80 per cent to 90 per cent of your earnings in maintaining these public officers.

“This is really is a big problem in Nigeria. I remember as the CBN governor when I raised the point that 80 per cent of government revenue was being used to maintain 1million public officers, leaving 20 per cent for over 160 million Nigerians, my state governor reacted by saying the federal government was planning to recruit more people.

“The situation we are in isn’t an unforeseen one so we need to go back to the basics and basic common sense by tailoring our political system to the level of development and resources of the country. We need to free up the resources and invest them so as to free ourselves from these problems we are having.”