Babatunde Fashola, Nigeria’s Minister of Works and Housing has asserted that Nigerians are disappointed in the Buhari-led administration because they are looking for results in the wrong place.
Fashola who disclosed this in an interview on Channels Television said Nigerians should note that governance is not magic and the results they promptly need can only be delivered by state and local government which are the closest to grassroots.
“Governance is not magic. It is the act of the possible and our responsibility is to always project hope. Perhaps those who feel that way (disappointed) should be made to realize that what we expect of the Nigerian Federal government lies more with the state government and the local government…some of the most basic things.
“What we should do is to focus on the government that is closest to us. I will urge people to go and read the constitution, the powers the President has are about 45, many of them are categorised as power but they are even functions and duties.
“The government that can transform us and give us what we want quickly are the government closest to us – state and local government,” he said.
Fashola notes that basic infrastructure like primary healthcare, primary education, among others which Nigerians clamour for, can only be delivered by state and local governments.
“Looking for the Federal Government or a magic President is why we seem to have been disappointed. We are looking for the results in the wrong place,” Fashola said.
He urged Nigerians to read the constitution to understand better the divide between the state and the Federal Government.
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According to him refuse management, water supply, primary healthcare, basic education, etc are all matters within the local and state government and the duties rest upon the state governors.
Meanwhile Muhammad Sanusi, former Emir of Kano has argued Nigerian public office holders are merely fighting for their pockets rather than represent the interest of the country.
Sanusi, who was a former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stated this while speaking at The Platform, an annual conference organised by Covenant Christian Centre in Lagos, on Thursday.
The virtual event hosted by Poju Oyemade, its convener, was to commemorate the nation’s 60th independence anniversary.
Nigeria has witnessed series of ethnoreligious crisis which has resulted in several ethnic groups calling for a referendum.
When asked about ways to solve the crisis and restore peace, Sanusi said Nigerians must recognize that irrespective of political office, every citizen must be good representatives of their beliefs, religion and ethnic groups.
He said those who claim to represent the interest of southerners and northerners due to the political positions they occupy are more concerned about their pockets than happenings in the various areas they represent.
“Ethno-religious crisis is not so much from Nigerians but the Nigerian elites. We have identities in Nigeria but the construction of opposing identities, the political process, is basically the Nigerian elite competing among itself for a share of the national cake,” he said.
“I don’t think that the people who say they are fighting for Hausa, Igbo or Yoruba are really interested. I mean when they get there at the end of the day, it is about them and their families.
“There is nobody out there that is really representing north or south or east. They claim to be if you look out there in the cabinet. In the history of Nigeria, there has never been a government that does not have people from every part of the country.
“So the first thing to recognize is that we must get away from the sense that holding political office is what makes you representative of a people.
Sanusi also commended the federal government for its decision to remove fuel subsidy.
He added that the reforms being adopted by the government will yield positive results.
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