Sen Urhoghide Carpets Governors For Unbridled Quest For Power

Chairman of the Senate Public Account Committee Mathew Urhoghide has blamed state governors for several of the challenges facing the country.

He specifically said the governors desire to control the president, the National Assembly, state assembly and local government are part of the problems facing Nigeria.

He said the 10th National Assembly would suffer what he described as “institutional memory loss” as many members of the federal legislature with wealth of experience and knowledge in lawmaking would not return to the assembly, having lost their reelection bids in their various states.

The lawmaker who spoke to newsmen in Benin also responded to pressure to join the governorship race in 2024, saying his political future is in the hand of God.

He said there was nothing wrong if he wants to become governor of Edo State in 2024.

Urhogide said, “Let me say this, parliament all over the world is driven by knowledge, 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 the parliamentary or presidential system. It is driven by experience.

“That is why the number of times you come in there, ranks you. Whatever laws made for good governance in the land is from the parliament, it is not cooked overnight. If you keep taking people out of the National Assembly and keep feeding in new people. What happens to institutional memory?

“Since I got to the Senate about 8years ago, put it conservatively, I have been trained up to 20 times outside the shores of this country. What happens to the experience? Because the training I have received is not transferable. Today, as we speak less than 20 percent of senators will come back to the Senate. It is a huge loss to this country,” he said.

He also said that state governors are part of the problems in Nigeria as they want to control the president, the National Assembly, state assembly and the local government councils.

“The state governors are a major problem as they want to control the president, the National Assembly, the state houses of Assembly, and the local government areas. I believe they don’t understand their roles in democracy. If there are any parameters to judge what they have done in the states, very few governors will pass. The development of a state is multi-faceted.

“It is not just the number of roads you tar that determine whether you have done well or not. What about 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,” Urhoghide said.

He advised the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, to unite Nigerians because they “have never been as divided as they are today.”