Former Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Solomon Dalung, has criticized the current crop of state governors, describing them as failures who have pushed Nigeria “next to hell.”
Dalung said governance at the state level deteriorated significantly under the administration of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari, particularly from 2015 onward.
He made the remarks during an interview on Trust TV, where he contrasted development in parts of Southern Nigeria with what he described as persistent leadership failures in the North.
According to him, Southern Nigeria has largely sustained the visions and policies laid down by its founding leaders. He noted that free education introduced by Chief Obafemi Awolowo remains a feature in the South-West, while economic principles associated with Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe are still evident in the South-East.
“The South-East has failures like the North, but the difference is the economic base and the enterprise of the people,” Dalung said, adding that the South-South and South-West have fared better, with the South-West standing out for adhering to the ideals of its founding fathers.
Turning to the North, Dalung said the region had a strong ideological foundation laid by Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, but lamented that only a few governors in the Fourth Republic had governed in line with that vision.
He acknowledged that many governors in the early years of the Fourth Republic performed creditably, citing former Kaduna State governor Ahmed Makarfi and the late former Katsina State governor Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as examples.
However, Dalung said performance declined sharply with subsequent administrations. While he noted that a few governors elected in 2007, including Sule Lamido and Ibrahim Shema, still delivered meaningful governance, he described the set of governors that emerged from 2015 as a “disaster.”
“The third set was a disaster from 2015; they performed too poorly. I was an active participant in the creation of the tsunami that brought them,” he said. “This current set we have has sent us next to hell.”
