Edo Senator Blames Governors as Part of Nigeria’s Problem
Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City
The senator representing Edo South senatorial district in the National Assembly, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, yesterday, blamed governors in the country for their over bearing attitude towards governance, saying it formed part of Nigeria’s problems.
Urhoghide, who stated this in a chart with journalists in Benin City, claimed that the governors wanted to be everywhere in the affairs of the country.
“They want to control the President, the National Assembly, State Assembly and the Local Government Councils,” he declared, adding that if they understood their role in governance, they would have known that development is multi-faceted.
According to him, “I believe they don’t understand their roles in democracy. If there is any parameters to judge what they have done in the states, very few governors will pass. The development of a state is multi-dimensional.
“It is not just the number of roads you tar that determines whether you have done well or not. What about the human capital development? What about the different sectors of our economic life and the lives of our people? The man that you are building roads or bridges for, how have you developed him so that he can fend for himself and his family? You must develop the man in totality.
“To know the quality of development in the states, let’s go to the state assembly to know how accountable they are. The National Assembly can still talk to the President, but how many members of the state assembly can raise their voices to the governors. The governors are stepping beyond their boundaries.”
On the incoming 10th national assembly, Urhoghide, said the next assembly would suffer loss of institutional memory, as many members with wealth of experience and knowledge in lawmaking will not return, having lost their re-election bids in their various states.
“Let me say this, parliament all over the world is driven by knowledge because it is a repository of knowledge and you get better in the business of lawmaking and other legislative activities the more you stay there. Whether in parliamentary or presidential system.
“It is driven by experience. That is why the number of time you come in there, ranks you. Whatever laws made for good governance in the land is from the parliament. It is not cooked overnight. It is there you have the true representatives of the people.
“Unfortunately, If you keep taking people out of the National Assembly and keep feeding in new people. What happens to Institutional Memory? The way we did it yesterday will be lost. Nobody will ensure continuity. Nobody can say we did it like this yesterday. This is the result we got, let’s do it differently today.”
