The Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) has said state governors are not
the sole target of a comment by First Lady Aisha Buhari that things
are ‘getting out of hand’ in the country without the governments doing
much about it.
Mrs Buhari, who has criticised various government organs in the past,
took a swipe at the governors, saying citizens do not have access to
potable water in some states.
“People cannot afford potable water in this country while we have
governors,” she said on Friday at the Nigerian Supreme Council for
Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) general assembly meeting in Abuja.
However, the NGF in response through a statement signed by its
spokesperson Abdulrazaque Barkindo, on Sunday, said any interpretation
that Mrs Buhari’s comments were targeted as governors was ”incorrect
and mischievous.”
The forum said the governors are not the target of the criticism as
they are working in their states to lift millions of citizens out of
poverty.
Online medium, Premium Times had reported the NGF in November
announcing that it launched an initiative, Human Capital Development
(HCD), which aims to move 24 million Nigerians out of poverty before
2030.
The plan is collaboration with the office of the Vice President.
“Governors are doing their best to lift Nigerians out of misery and
Nigerians are beginning to witness an improvement in their standards
of living because of the conscious efforts of state governors
throughout the country. The nation is replete with remarkable
improvements in different facets of public life.
“It is therefore incorrect and mischievous to allude to the warning by
Mrs Aisha Buhari as only directed at state governors as there is
nowhere in the speech where the First Lady referred directly to the
governors,” the NGF said.
The forum said the entire political class is affected by the first
lady’s comment as not the governors’ alone.
“To insinuate that the First Lady was referring to Governors when she
said, “People cannot afford potable water in this country while we
have governors,” erroneously suggests that only State Governors would
meet God on the day of judgement. The statement partly said.
