Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, on Wednesday labelled the Federal Government as too overbearing, with too many powers and resources at its disposal.
The governor insisted that the underdeveloped nature of Nigerian states is traceable to an overbearing federal government that had dysfunctional organisations slowing down the pace of development.
Wike, a former Minister of State for Education, said state governors should no longer be addressed as Chief Security Officers (CSOs), but mere Chief Logistic Officers (CLOs), who would only provide logistics for federal security agencies.
The governor stated these while addressing the Executive Intelligence Management Course (EIMC) 9 at the Institute of Security Service (ISS), Abuja.
He insisted that the overbearing nature of the federal government must be quickly addressed.
He said: “The federal government is simply too overbearing with too much powers and resources at its disposal. We know the recurrent rifts between the federal government and the states over development issues, including revenue sharing, resource control, excess crude oil account, appointments into federal agencies and arbitrary location or withdrawal of federally-funded projects.”
In his paper titled: “Institutional Weaknesses and Challenges of Development in Rivers State,” Wike noted that federal government agencies had been turned against state and local governments, claiming that they merely constituted themselves into a stumbling block by deliberately embarking on unconstitutional activities that had been stalling development.
