Safiu Kehinde
In the wake of Federal Government’s directive of 60 percent slash in travel delegation, Kano State Governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, has charged state government and the legislative to emulate the Federal Government’s action towards the reduction in cost of governance.
Commending the FG’s directive in a recent interview on Politics Today Program aired by Channels Television, Shekarau, called for the extension of the directive to state government across the nation.
“Since this is extended to ministries, I want to urge the state too to borrow a leaf from the Federal Government by taking some steps.
“There are lot of wastages even at state level. Where they can go by road, taking chartered flight is also another thing that has to be stopped.
“I call on the President to counsel the all state government to take a clue from this.” He said.
In the same vein, the two-time Kano State Governor, who also legislated at the National Assembly, urged the National Assembly to emulate the FG’s decision in terms of reduction in number of supporting staffs.
“We want to call on the leadership of the National Assembly to also borrow a leaf from this.
“From my experience, every National Assembly member is entitled to five supporting staffs. From the practical work that I see there, you don’t need more than two.
“Of course there is always a secretary to handle correspondence and probably one or two other special supporting staffs that will help you do a lot of research works.
“I think in a situation whereby you have five times 469, we can see that it’s quite much.” He added.
Meanwhile, Shekarau also urged the Federal Government’s to review the number of appointments, including ministerial appointments.
He stressed that the President needs to restructure the excessive appointments to effect the reduction in cost of governance.
“ Going by the constitution, we need not to have more than 36 to 37 ministers. But in the situation where we are having 40 plus, I think Tinubu needs to go back to his drawing board. Creating many ministries, I’m sure we don’t need much of this.
“Number of appointees need to be checked. Government should come up with a minimum or maximum number “ He said.