The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has described as a huge scam and an illegality, the ‘Good Governance Tour’ embarked upon by Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, and a retinue of other government officials, saying it must be stopped immediately and those behind it made to account for the public funds they have collected in the process.
Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State had days ago accused Maku and co of forcing states to sponsor the minister and almost 120 other people on the entourage, paying their hotel bills, feeding them and also footing their transport bill during the duration of the tour.
He explained that when the proposal came, he told those its proponents that he would not be part of the plan, as the amount he was required to spend is enough to fund projects that would better serve the people. He insisted that he does not need any Good Governance Tour people to tell him how he constructed his road because the projects would continue to speak for him.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, ACN commended Oshiomhole for rejecting a multi-million-naira proposal from the minister, asking the state government to bankroll the Edo leg of the tour.
It said such a tour as currently being led by the minister across the country is an illegality in a federalism, the country’s system of government because it distorts the constitution and gives the impression that the Federal Government is a supervisor of the various states.
“Under our federalism, no state is subject to any control from the Federal Government and no governor is mandated to report to the president,” the statement observed.
“To now have a team assembled by the Federal Government inspecting the projects carried out by the various states is not only fraudulent and illegal but amounts to a blatant waste of public funds. It is a carryover from the days of military rule under which Nigeria was governed as a unitary state.
“It is also a case of double jeopardy for the states, whose projects are made to look like they have been executed by the Federal Government while at the same time, the states are made to pay for the meaningless tour.
“We say, unequivocally, that this tour fits into other fraudulent schemes concocted by this Federal Government to swindle the people, enrich a few and pad its war chest for the 2015 elections, and we are talking here of SURE-P as well as the oil subsidy and the pension fund scam. This jamboree must end today!”
The party wondered whether the Federal Government that initiated the tour has allocated any funds to it.
“If this answer is yes, why are states being asked to cough up millions of Naira for it? And if the answer is no, why must states be made to pay for a Federal Government-initiated tour?
“If the Federal Government has any project to showcase anywhere in the country, it is its prerogative to do so without extorting money from the states. And where it has nothing to showcase, it is fraudulent to be showcasing the projects embarked
upon by state governments, many of which are not even under the same party as the Federal Government, hence they have their own mandates based on their party manifestoes.
“Wouldn’t it be laughable to see the minister of information question contractors of projects being executed by state governments or issue ultimatums to contractors he did not hire?”
ACN advised Minister Maku to “immediately put an end to the jamboree he is leading, declare all the public funds he has collected in the name of this tour and return such to the state governments that have been swindled under the so-called Good Governance Tour.”
