Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima has begged governors in the country to stop milking the public treasury dry.
He said that unless something was done fast to address the plight of the common man, ´´what awaits the country will be worse than the Boko Haram insurgency.”
The governor gave the advice on Tuesday in Abuja at the 2017 graduation of Internally Displaced Girls under the Organisation of Female Students Scholarship Scheme.
“The most important yard stick has to do with the quality of governance; there is more to leadership than primitive capital accumulation.
´´No matter how much you accumulate beyond a certain point, it’s just a number,” the governor said.
According to him, violence cannot be separated from poverty, and a hopeless, jobless, ill-educated and ill-paid young man is the most dangerous.
Shettima stated that it was the responsibility of governors to enthrone good governance by “wearing their thinking caps” and working for the people.
He, therefore, stressed the need for governors to create more jobs, invest in education and create work space and work stations for the next generation of youths.
He noted that women and children bore the brunt of insurgency, adding that the Boko Haram sect had so far created 54,911 widows and 52,311 orphans in the state.
“These are official figures, probably the unofficial figure may be twice this number.
“The truth is that we either take care of these orphans or 10 years to fifteen years from now, they will be the monsters that will drive us out of this land,” he said.
According to the governor, some elite and political bigwigs were already afraid of visiting rural areas to meet with common men for fear of being molested.
