One of the grandsons of the late Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Billy, yesterday, alleged that some of the governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) are the major problems of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The younger Balewa, who is contesting the Bauchi South senatorial seat on the platform of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), made this allegation when he visited the corporate headquarters of Blueprint newspapers in Abuja.
The senatorial candidate said the governors have failed to bring the dividends of democracy to the people by way of infrastructural development, ensure change of attitude in governance, instead he said they have sustained abuse of power, impunity and unnecessary extravagance.
He accused some of the governors of not conducting local government elections for over 10 years, arguing that the development had alienated them from the common Nigerians.
“You might decide to say that Mr. President has done well. But, how about the APC governors? That is where even the problem is. They have failed Mr. President. They are not impacting positively on the people, instead they have continued with recklessness and looting of public funds. It’s business as usual.
“There is no bad president in Nigeria. We have not had any bad president in Ngeria. Forget the fact that we have had presidents that were weak, and easily prone to mistakes. But still, I respect each and every president that we have had in Nigeria.
“But the major problem is in the second tier of government—state. Most of the states don’t even have local government councils because the governors are interested in the money going to the council. In my state (Bauchi), for almost 10 years there has not been local government election.
“How does the common man on the street relate with the government? Nobody is saying anything, it is business as usual. These are some of the things that we should look into. You may say it is nothing, but the younger generation is not as patience as the present of people are’’, he said.
Balewa also accused the president of being selective in his war against corruption crusade and queried why some alleged corrupt politicians were admitted into APC.
He said: “Leadership is not just about integrity. It is just one aspect of it. For me, leadership is all about justice and fairness. If you are not fair, no matter how truthful, or how good your integrity is, forget it. There is no way, you can succeed.
“When we say total war against corruption, we have seen people who are being accused of siphoning billions of naira coming into the ruling party now and becoming good friends of the party. Is it because they are bringing in their money to support the government? No.
“I expect President Buhari to have decided himself that he is ready and willing to die for the younger generation of Nigerians. He should have fought them headlong, even if they have to kill him, he should have fought them for us to survive’’.
