According to Solomon Dalung, Nigeria’s former minister of sports and youth development, the present crop of state governors has led the country “next to hell.”
This was as Dalung disclosed that state governors under the administration of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari performed poorly.
In an interview with Trust TV, he made the claim while mentioning how the southern region of Nigeria has grown in tandem with the aspirations of its forefathers.
According to Dalung: “Southern Nigeria has been able to develop alongside the dreams and vision of their founding fathers. Free education, which was introduced by Awolowo, still exists in the Southwest. There is continued implementation of Azikiwe’s economic ideas in the Southeast.
“The Southeast has failures like the North; the difference is that the economic base of the Southeast and the activities of the people mark the differences.
“If you go to the South-South, it is the same thing. By remaining true to their founding fathers’ ideals, the Southwest has achieved remarkable success.
“For the North, Sardauna left a very good legacy. Unfortunately, in this particular republic, the Fourth Republic, we have only had a few governors who have lived within the context of our founding fathers.
“The first set of governors we had under this Republic, only a few of them failed; the majority did well. Makarfi in Kaduna, his transformation of Kaduna State was massive.
“Yar’Adua in Katsina did excellently, and you take other governors, but some states in that set of governance performed poorly.
“Then it worsened when the second set came on board in 2007; there were very few who still held onto this. We have Sule Lamido, Shema, and a few others who also did very well.
“The third set was a disaster from 2015; they performed too poorly. I’m an active participant in the creation of the tsunami that brought them. Then this set that we have now, it has sent us next to hell.”