A member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Transition Council, Aliyu Audu, has insisted that the 45 ministers appointed by President Bola Tinubu are not enough.
Audu, in a recent interview, stated, “I don’t think 45 is even enough. I don’t think 48 is enough. We have a population of over 200 million. We are in crisis.”
He stressed further that Tinubu, as Lagos State governor between 1999 and 2007, the President felt that the need to take governance closer to the people demanded the creation of more local governments.
His words:
“A lot of people thought he was taking it too far, but look at how Lagos has moved in 24 years and how every other state has moved in 24 years.
“I’m not talking about potential. I’m not talking about what it used to be before, but I’m talking about sheer growth between then and now.”
Quizzed further, Audu noted that he was not speaking only about revenue but “every standard”.
He explained, “Lagos isn’t the poorest state in Nigeria, is it? The standard of living in Lagos State isn’t the worst in Nigeria, is it? Then, in terms of burden, Lagos holds the burden of the entire nation.”
The transition council member noted that the migration of people from other states into Lagos alone put enormous pressure on everything the state had built in the last 24 years, though in his view, the state is still building and growing.
He added:
“What it means is, if we can take a bit of this pressure off Lagos by creating six other states in six geopolitical zones, that sort of reduces rural-urban migration, reduces people leaving the North, the East, the West to Lagos.
“It balances up the states, and to do this, you need more people, you need more hands, we need more processes.”
