Masari: Every state can sustain itself — Nigeria shouldn’t depend on oil

Aminu Masari, governor of Katsina, says every state in the country has the potential of sustaining itself.

In an interview with NAN, Masari said states should look inwards to see the resources they have rather than depend on the crude oil earnings of the country.

The governor said if the country depends solely on oil, “there will be a total collapse of the institutions”.

“Every state has potential,” he said.

“We have to start to look inwards to see how we can depend more on ourselves than the single reliance on one commodity which is oil and which we don’t determine its price or determine its consumption.

“It is simply an area where we have no control over.

“We need to go back to those areas we have control because between 2014 and especially by the time we came in 2015, progressively the price of crude oil continued to go down and down.

“The summary of what I am saying is that every single state of the federation has advantage or comparative advantage in terms of what it can develop to sustain itself, especially in the area of agriculture.

“For instance in Katsina state, about 90 percent of the population is directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture.”

Masari said power should be devolved to the states because it will help states with “peculiarities”.

“Let me give you a simple example, I may be wrong but as the governor of Katsina State I should not be earning as much as the governor of Lagos,” he said.

“The resources at the disposal of the governor of Lagos is only second to the Federal Government, likewise Rivers, even our neighbour here, Kano.”