Emmanuel Onani 
State governments have been tasked with the urgent need to deliver on the existing social contract they have with the masses, with a view to dousing the palpable tensions that have the potential of threatening public peace and safety.
Community Advocacy for Peace and Strategic Leadership Initiative (CAPSL-Initiative), which made the call in a statement yesterday, said until Nigerians begin to demand accountability from their respective state governments, human capital development will remain largely elusive.
In the statement signed by its chairman, Akwuobi Emeka Francis, and Secretary, Pius Pamela, CAPSL-Initiative said its investigation has so far revealed a steady increase in revenues from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) to the 36 states, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
According to the group, a reduction in the cost of governance by governors, and other elected/public office holders will free resources, which will subsequently be deployed to critical areas of needs such as employment generation, infrastructural development, credit opportunities, among other basic amenities of life.
“A situation where governors, and other elective and political office holders display opulence amid biting hunger and excruciating economic realities, provokes the poor, many of whom need as low as N100, 000 to establish themselves.
“We have it on good authority that allocations to states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have been on the increase for months now, without corresponding improvements in the lives of the ordinary citizens.
“It is worthy of note that the recent protests that happened in parts of the country, might have been averted had many of the states been sensitive to the basic needs of their peoples”, the statement reads in part.
