Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has opined that governors are the most suspected elected officials in the country. He said everyone thinks Governors are just thieves and are wasting state resources without doing anything.
El Rufai, who said his perspective was shaped by his time in the office said this during a Channel Tv Programme on Monday noting that Governors are assumed to be taking security votes.
According to him, when people hear security votes, they think it is a slush fund for Governors hence resulting in how some governors have a very negative image in the faces of many Nigerians.
However, he noted that being the governor of a state is one of the most difficult jobs in the world. El Rufai said governors’ capacity to borrow is limited while the Federal Government can print money.
El Rufai said he and some other governors came into office at a very bad time in terms of economic viability. He said they came when oil prices were crashing into the twenties and had inherited bureaucracies that were designed and structured around $100 per barrel oil.
The governor noted that other than Lagos, very few state governments have room to do what they can do adding that virtually every state in Nigeria except Lagos State relies on Federation Account transfers which might result into challenges when they the account goes down.
Speaking further, he said people still expected progress to happen overnight despite the recession the country went through.