Stop giving bailout funds to states, Lame tells Buhari

Ibrahim Lame, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Bauchi State, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari against giving bailout funds to states.

Lame, a former minister of police affairs, said this yesterday in an interview with the press in Bauchi, saying instead of using the bailout funds to settle outstanding salaries, the governors divert the money for other purposes, thereby making life miserable for the civil servants.

Lame also urged the Federal Government to set up liaison offices in all the states of the federation so that it could directly execute projects that would impact positively on the citizens, rather than doling out such huge money to the governors, whom he alleged pump half of it into security votes.

“As a President, you are not supposed to give bailouts to states, you are supposed to bail out the economy. Let the governors go and fulfil their campaign promises. They should look inwards and look for money because there were problems in the economy when they came in. What the President should have done was to look at which aspect of the economy he should revive,” he said.

He urged the citizens to give the government the needed support to be able to bring the change it promised.