Let’s Query Governors’ Profligacy

President Bola Tinubu’s call for governors to prioritise citizens’ welfare, echoed by the United States’ Embassy’s recent critique of their extravagance and mismanagement of resources, has fuelled the urgent need for Nigerians to start holding their leaders at the subnationals accountable, Davidson  Iriekpen writes

Again, President Bola Tinubu last week called on state governors to prioritise the welfare of Nigerians by investing more in rural electrification, agricultural mechanisation, poverty eradication, and infrastructure.

His advice came on the heels of a presentation on the Renewed Hope Ward Development Programme (RHWDP) at the 150th meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) in Abuja.

“I want to appeal to you; let us change the story of our people in the rural areas. The economy is working,” he said.

 “We are on the path of recovery, but we need to stimulate growth in the rural areas. We know the situation in the rural areas; let us collaborate and do what will benefit the people. We have to embrace mechanisation in agriculture, fight insecurity and improve school enrolment through school-feeding,” he said.

The call is not the first by the president. In March, while hosting governors and other officials for an Iftar dinner at the State House in Abuja, Tinubu had urged governors to prioritise policies and initiatives that directly benefit the poor and vulnerable in society.

In May, while speaking at the opening of a two-day investment summit organised by the Nasarawa State Government in Lafia, he said the time had come for governors of various states to develop their states, and make them economically viable for the growth and development of the country.

Also in July, at the 14th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja, Tinubu implored state governors to focus more on increased community engagement to meet the expectations of Nigerians. While admitting that Nigerians were still complaining at the grassroots, he charged governors to wet the grass more and deliver progressive change to Nigerians.

From these indications, President Tinubu may have indirectly been urging Nigerians to sometimes defocus their attention from the federal government and shift it to their state governments which are closer to them and are properly situated to provide their basic needs.

Although analysts have attributed the biting economic hardship to Tinubu’s twin policies of petrol subsidy removal and unification of the foreign exchange windows, there is no doubt that these policies have helped to seriously increase the revenue base of the three tiers of government.

For example, in 2023, the 36 states of the federation shared N1.5 trillion in the first half of the year. The figure increased to N1.88 trillion in the first half of 2024 and ballooned to N2.2 trillion by April this year.

Despite huge allocations, including internally generated revenue, the country continues to grapple with inflation, rising living costs, hunger, unemployment, and a widening infrastructure gap, all of which have deepened poverty, slowed economic growth, and worsened living conditions nationwide.

At the state levels, many governors have failed to prioritise or deliver critical infrastructure such as good roads, schools, hospitals, and portable water. This negligence fuels youth unemployment, discourages investment, and pushes citizens to fend for themselves.

While the eyes of many Nigerians are focused on the federal government, the state governors live like emperors who cannot be questioned, not even by their state Houses of Assembly.

The huge allocations to states and local governments are meant to fast-track the execution of viable economic and social infrastructure at the grassroots. But this is not the case, and it has exacerbated poverty and frustration in the country.

There is also the sustained and worsening public outcry from several residents and stakeholders in some states over the consistent absence of their governors, who, rather than sit at home, prefer to govern the people from Abuja, United States, United Kingdom, Dubai, Turkey and other parts of the world at the expense of state resources.

In many states, roads and hospitals are in deplorable conditions. Agriculture, which is supposed to be encouraged to drive investment and massive employment in order to tame hunger and rural-urban drift, is neglected.

A recent report by the Cadre Harmonisé Food and Nutrition Insecurity Analysis, led by the federal government, with support from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and other partners, projected that 33.1 million Nigerians would face high levels of food insecurity during the June–August 2025 lean season. This totals 34.7 million, the number of Nigerians at risk of hunger.

According to UNESCO, approximately 20 million children are out of school in the country. This figure represents about one in three children in Nigeria and accounts for 15 per cent of the global total of out-of-school children. The situation is particularly severe in the northern regions, where over half of the girls are not in school. 

Last month, Prince Clem Agba, former Minister of State for Budget and National Planning in the Muhammadu Buhari administration, reiterated the validity of the multidimensional poverty survey he commissioned while in office, which put the population figure of multidimensionally poor Nigerians at 133 million.

Speaking at the honorary national steering committee meeting and dinner with the Open Government Partnership global support unit in Abuja, he said that neither the federal government under the former Buhari administration nor the successor administration of Tinubu was responsible for the multidimensional poverty in Nigeria. Instead he blamed the state governments for the poverty plaguing the country.

“Who, in our constitution, is responsible for these things I have spoken about? Who is responsible for basic education? It is subnational government. Who is responsible for basic health? It is subnational government. Who is responsible for providing potable drinking water? It is subnational government. Who is responsible for sanitation? Subnational government. So, why are we blaming the federal government?

“We need to hold those who are to provide these amenities responsible because it is not enough to say government did not provide this or government did not provide that. Which government? We run a Federation and there are three tiers – the federal government, the state government and then the local government,” Agba said.

Perhaps, it was against this background that the United States Embassy in Nigeria raised serious concerns over the spending habits of some governors, accusing them of extravagance and poor management of public funds.

In a report it released, the embassy highlighted that many governors have been allocating huge sums of money towards the construction and renovation of government houses, even though many millions of Nigerians are facing severe economic difficulties.

The report noted that while President Tinubu has urged Nigerians to endure the current economic challenges brought about by government policies, some governors have not been sharing the burden of sacrifice.

It went further to accuse them of embarking on frivolous projects like the renovation and building of government houses with multi-billion naira while their people suffer from infrastructure decay or wallow in poverty and hardship.

The US embassy condemned these actions, emphasising that such reckless spending undermines public trust and increases inequality across the country.

BudgIT Nigeria, a civic-tech organisation advocating transparency in public finance, has also lamented that instead of investing in essential sectors like education, health, or agriculture, state governments are choosing to build facilities that are rarely used and provide little public value.

The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) echoed similar concerns. “There is more money, little accountability, and no priority,” it noted, adding that many governors are acting with impunity, emboldened by weak oversight and minimal citizen engagement in the budgeting process.

It is time for Nigerians to rise up and demand accountability from their governors.

Nigerians cannot be living in hunger and penury while public officers continue to live large.