Why Nigeria entered recession’

A former Minister of Finance and one-time High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji, has identified high overheads in governance and other expenses associated with Nigeria’s federal system as the reason why Nigeria fell into recession.

Abubakar stated this in Sokoto on Tuesday while hosting the Chairman, Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debt, Senator Shehu Sani.

The former Nigeria High Commissioner to the UK also said the creation of states under the federal system had heightened the level of corruption among its units.

He said, “Now, you have 36 states, you also have 36 governors. You have 36 state assemblies and may be you have 36 commissioners in each state.

“Then, all the money will be for payment of overheads. Now, all our money is used to settle political office holders.

“The more states we have, the more corruption we have. Creating more states won’t solve our ethnicity problem.”