Buhari Should Stop Giving Bailouts to States, Says Lame

Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi

Former Minister of Police Affairs and 2015 governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bauchi State, Dr. Ibrahim Yakubu Lame, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to henceforth stop giving bailout funds to state governments but should utilise the money judiciously in executing projects in the states.

Speaking in an interview with journalists in his Bauchi residence yesterday, the APC chieftain lamented that instead of using the bailout funds to settle outstanding salaries, the governors ‘divert the money’ to other purposes thereby inflicting hardship on civil servants as a result of irregular payment of their wages.

According to him, the federal government should establish liaison offices in all the states of the federation so that it could directly carry out projects that would impact positively on the citizens rather than doling out such huge money to the governors whom he alleged pump half of it in their ‘security votes’.

‘’As a president, you are not supposed to give bailouts to states, you are supposed to bail out the economy. Let the governors go and meet their campaign promises. They should look in ward and look for money. Because there was problem in the economy when he came in. So, what the president should have done was to look at which aspect of the economy he should revive,’’ he suggested.

The ex-minister however expressed satisfaction with the performance of the Buhari administration within the last one year, particularly in the fight against the Boko Haram insurgency and corruption urging the citizens to give the government the needed support to be able to bring the change it promised.

He also used the forum to debunk the insinuation that he quarrels with the incumbent governor of the state, Mohammed Abubakar pointing out that the recent visit he and members of the national assembly from the state paid to the president and APC national headquarters was due to the inability of the state chapter of the party to address their grudges against the governor and other anomalies in the party.