The Trade Union Congress on Tuesday challenged the 36 state governors to account for the usage of security votes they had been collecting all these years.
TUC National Treasurer and President-General of the Senior Staff Association of Statutory Corporations and Government-Owned Companies (SSASCGOC), Mohammad Yunusa, made the call in an interview with journalists in Abuja.
He also urged the Federal Government to cut cost of governance by scrapping the Senate or the House of Representatives.
Reacting to a question on what labour unions were doing to help government in fighting insecurity, Yunus said: ”Let’s look at the narratives before now. Government gives security votes to all state governors before now as chief security officers of their states and that money is not usually accounted for.
”If you ask how they’re using it, they’ll tell you security matters are shrouded in secrecy. If you’re the chief security officer of a state, and you’re being given security votes, I don’t know how much that’s given to you, I don’t know what you’re doing with it, how can I help you to secure the state?
”We’re now changing the narratives to say no, if the security is the collective responsibility of every citizen, let the state governors share their plans with the citizens so that we can key into that plan and secure our state.”
According to him, the only way to reduce insecurity is by fighting poverty in the land, saying investments will continue to elude the country if insecurity challenges are not properly addressed.
