FROM JULIANA TAIWO-OBALONYE, ABUJA

FORMER governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, has said governors have enough money to work for the people, advising them to use their security vote to do so if need be.

Kalu led some investors to the State House to meet with Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo.

The former governor who commended some of the states that are working despite dwindling resourc­es, frowned at a situation where most of the state governors have practically abandoned their states for Abuja, adding that cry­ing for more funds was uncalled for and security votes drawn excessive.

He also described as unheard of a situation in which governors get as much as N35 million as allowance each time they travel outside their states, adding that they were liv­ing in absolute luxury to the detriment of the people in their states.

Kalu said: “I think most of these governors are do­ing very well and some of them also are living in the euphoria of the office.

“You can see most of them who are very active, I don’t need to count them for you. The issue of crying for fund, honestly, in my opinion, these governors have enough fund to work for their people, because if you check, the money drawn as security vote is excessive. They should stop that. Unless they stop drawing on security vote, they will not have enough fund to work with and most of them are living in absolute luxury, which is not their money that they worked for. So, it is impos­sible to continue living in this manner.”

The former Abia helms­man added: “ Most of the governors are even living in Abuja now, they don’t even live in their states. Honest­ly, if you look at the books very well, in each trip they make they will take trav­elling allowance of N35 million, which is unheard of. What are you going to do with that? So how are we going to progress? Not all the governors are doing this. I have gone through Rivers, I see that Rivers has hit the ground running. I have gone through Adama­wa and I see Adamawa hit­ting the ground running. I have gone through few more states, they are hitting the ground running, they are working.

“I don’t speak with sen­timents I don’t speak for anybody. You can see those who are working and those who are not working. Let them sit down and do the job they are elected for.”

Kalu said that the econo­my should not rely on crude oil alone, while advising that ensuring steady power supply would revamp the economy.

He believed that the pri­vate sector could also do with government guarantee to access credit.

Kalu said Nigeria is blessed with a lot of re­sources, which, if properly harnessed can earn it huge foreign exchange.

According to Kalu, peo­ple who leave the private sector for governance make a lot of sacrifice, stressing that being a governor was not about enriching one­self, but serving the people.

He said: “When people see people like us, who have been governors, we made a lot of sacrifices in going to sit down there, because I can make much more money than sitting down there for eight years. So it was a sacrifice worth making for our people.”