A Youth Activist, Genshak Wadak Wuseli Golak has accused State Governors of triggering high demand for dollars amidst free falling value of the naira. As widely reported today, Wednesday, 21st February,2024 the naira fell to 1,920 per dollar. The weak purchasing power of the naira against the dollar has resulted into record high inflation as reported by National Bureau of Statistic, with the implication being high cost of living.
Comrade Golak writing today on his social media handle which he personally confirmed to www.pointblank.com.ng accused the governors of causing the free fall of the value of naira with their kleptomaniac tendencies. He accused the governors of not knowing what to do with excess cash accrued to them as a result of the removal of fuel subsidy.
The public commentator said the naira will continue to fall because every month, governors keep having access to uncontrolled humungous amount of money. For ease of looting and diversion, he alleges that the governors convert the naira to dollars.
“State governors have excess naira they don’t know how or what to do with, and the easiest solution to keep a large chunk of unused money is to convert it to dollars. And that’s the thing: this dollar will keep rising because every month trillions are shared”.
Comrade Golak added that “Governors that used to get as little as 10 to 20 billion as state allocations are now suffocated with over 90 to 100 billion monthly. So what do you expect from them?”
The Personal Assistant to the former Minister of Youth and Sports Development said governors have relegated developments to the background with endemic corruption and self-aggrandizement becoming their first priority.
He asked “Development? Of course, that’s usually a second thought for most of them; usually, their first priority is to loot as much as they can and stash it in dollars”.
Golak warns that “as it stands now, before this year runs out, if the President does not revert to status quo, expect the dollar to hit 10,000 naira, if not more”.
He lamented the inability of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to call the governors to order and more worrisome is the supposedly watchdogs called the states houses of assembly who are expected to checkmate the government. Sadly, they have become bulldogs who can only bark but cannot bite.
In his words, the former students union leader said “We are in a crazy situation as it stands now. The president can’t compel or tell governors what to use their allocations for, and state assemblies, which are supposedly the eyes of the common masses responsible for checking the excesses of the governors, are mostly toothless. Most have been bought and pocketed by some of these governors, so, head or tail, we are damned”!
