Former Governor of Jiagawa State, Sule Lamido, has lashed out at Northern governors for embarking on a jamboree to a foreign land just to discuss how to find lasting solutions to the security issues in the region.

A founding leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in his verified Facebook handle, said there was no need for the wasteful adventure considering the hardship the average Nigerian was passing through, arguing that the resources used for the trip would have been used to tackle other challenges facing the North.

According to him, if their trip was on how to boost agriculture or to improve the healthcare needs of the citizens or better still on other local problems on the concurrent list, they would have been commended.

He said: “Our Northern governors, as concerned leaders, travelled to the United States of America (U.S.A.) to attend a lecture at the American Institute for Peace entitled ‘Advancing Stability in Northern Nigeria’ to find a lasting solution to the intractable problems of insecurity in their respective states.”

Their concern, commendable as it were, he added, ended up exposing their ignorance at understanding the Constitution, the very instrument that gave them the legitimacy and the authority to be governors.

He said: “If the governors had travelled to the U.S. to engage on how to boost agriculture or health issues or any other pressing local problem on the Concurrent List of our Constitution, this could be quite understandable. But to engage in issues on the Exclusive Legislative List such as security says a lot of the substance they are made of.

“Security is a wide subject, which Their Excellencies must have the capacity to grasp. Most urban towns in their state lack potable water, as refuse dumps have taken over some streets; all these have precipitous security health hazards.”

Lamido wondered why they did not go to the country’s resourceful institutions such as the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, (NIPSS) in Kuru, Jos, Plateau State; Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) in Badagry, Lagos State or the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

“These three institutions have more than enough materials, essays and templates on the problems of security in Nigeria more than the far-fetched American institute,” he said.

The former foreign affairs minister blamed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NIA for failing to properly guide the governors on their folly, as the governors could not have travelled without the facilitation of the ministry or the Nigerian embassy in Washington.