Despite criticisms over President Bola Tinubu’s appointment of as many as 45 ministers, All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain Aliyu Audu says the number is not enough.
“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,” Audu, a member of the Media Strategy Subcommittee, APC Presidential Transition Council, said on Wednesday.
Asked to give his preferred figure, he answered, “I’m not putting any number to it.”
Buttressing his point, the APC member argued 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
“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,” the APC member said.
“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 in terms of 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 that the state had built in the last 24 years, though in his view, the state is still building and growing.
“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,” he said.
“It balances up the states and to do this, you need more people, you need more hands, we need more processes.”