Nigeria will never be developed if we do not empower States who are closer to the people.
Recently, I was speaking on a radio programme and to some Law Faculty Panel to defend an Essay and we discussed the death of Ken Saro- Wiwa while fighting for Resource Control and how unreasonable Nigerians have been to allow States that does not bring anything serious to the table to feed on the sweat of other States.
Are we not foolish? How best do you describe such lack of intelligence to take the bull by the horn?
Let me state why Nigeria will not develop:
1.Revenue Sharing Formula that gives 52.68% to Federal, 26.72% to all states; 20.6% to all local governments.
2. Injustice in the creation of local governments inside mere bush without people. Kano has 44 local governments and Lagos has 20 till today.
3. VAT sharing is 15% to Federal, 50% to all States and 35% to all 774 local governments.
4. The strategy of lazy Northern part of Nigeria is to cheat the south perpetually.
That is why 774 local governments was mentioned and expressly inserted into the constitution so that creating a new one in any state will require an amendment of the Constitution.
5. Obasanjo did everything to block an attempt by Tinubu to do it in Lagos .We need to learn to see far and beyond selfish gains.Anyway that is story for another day.
THE GAME PLAN WHICH IS WORKING FOR LAZY STATES.
1. They are more in civil service all over the country.Their own theory is government money is for us..Except for few working hard at private sector level but majority of the northern guys depends on government.
2. The principle is; you go and do the work and we share the money.Since you have 774 local governments in which case, most of them are adding no value in terms of good governance.It is just to share the money.
3. When you bring all the revenue to Abuja; they then share to states and local governments that are idle; thereby cheating states that are working.
4.By the time you share 35% of VAT collected among 774 local governments; more goes to local governments that are not bringing anything to the table.
5. Let me show a simple figure below:
6. VAT REVENUE SHARING FRAUD
If we are to share N100b in terms of VAT .FGN takes N15b.@ 15%
Let us assume we want to share equally among all states...Then each States takes N1.3b...Each local government takes N45m.
Lagos and Ogun with 20 local government will get 900m each.
The 71 local government in Kano and Jigawa will get N3.2b.
Who is working and who is eating.?
What an insane way to share.?
7. FAAC SHARING FRAUD
Let us look at other revenue .
If we have 100b in the Federation Account to share.
FGN takes N52.68b @ 52.68%
Each States get N742m assuming we just share equally @ 26.72% TO ALL STATES. TAKE NOTE... ALL STATES.
Who is doing more on health Care?
Who is doing more on Secondary Schools.?
8.Go and check all the Federal Government Schools that parent were struggling to put their children back then. If you are able to get to any of the unity schools then..You must be a big boy or girl.
Any boy or girl in Unity School is a lucky student.
9. Today...No Minister, Governor, Commissioner or P.S at state or Federal level and in fact director level will send their wards to those Schools. They prefer private Schools or Schools abroad.Many opt for Ghana.
10.In terms of Security? Healthcare, Education, Power and many others .....Federal Government seems to have failed. In fact, it will be mild to say Seems to have failed.
Most of the huge Expenditure we hear about goes into recurrent expenditure.
11.I recall during Fashola regime in Lagos, the State had to put a sign board on Ikorodu Road to beg Lagosians...
"We are sorry ..This is a Federal Road .Bear with us."
The road was so bad that Lagos was ashamed of it and they needed to tell the people, it belongs to the Federal Government.
I undertand an attempt to rehabilitate the road was stopped by FGN. Is that a Federal System?
12 I was in Obosi in Anambra State some years ago when Ngige was stopped while trying to fix Npor road by FGN.? He had already mobilised the contractor.
What most of them complained about then is what they are doing now.Fashola and Ngige are now ministers . Festus Keyamo that use to talk seems like a man on vacation in a far country . Very sad.
What level of change have they effected especially on things they complained about while serving their respective states as Governors.?
13 Most of the Governors that complained about Sharing of revenue are now in the senate but keeping quiet as they enjoy their Jumbo Pay. No attempt to restructure the country.That is very bad to say the least.
14. I wish my brothers; Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Dapo Abiodun, Oluseyi Abiodun Makinde, Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu, Gboyega Oyetola and Johanu Onitebomi Kayode Fayemi of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti States respectively can identify Federal Roads and Put some sign boards on those terrible roads to beg their people and let them know that they are Federal Roads like Fashola did.
15.Well your guess is as good as mine.They will not rock the boat.It was good then because Jonathan was not in the same party with Fashola. Hypocrisy will not allow politicians to speak out because of party affliation.Even Oluwaseyi Abiodun Makinde is speaking because he is in PDP. Am suspecting that Johanu Onitebomi Kayode Fayemi will soon speak .The way I look at his face when he spoke about Amotekun shows that he is getting worried about this pretence we call Federalism.
I hope my brother, Femi- Fani Kayode will also speak out now on Restructuring.Tinubu; Where are you.Remember what you fought for then at Afenifere.Let us not pretend as if things are okay like this.
16. Let us look at Local Government now.
Each Local Government get N26.5m assuming we are sharing N100b from the Federation Account and equally too.
If we share equally; All 20 LGA's in Lagos get N532m.
Jigawa and Kano with 71 LGA's gets N1.8b.
MY SUGGESTION.
1. Cancel Allocation based on Local government numbers because it amounts to cheating in that the creation was based on injustice.How can Lagos have 20 Local Governments and Kano will have 44 despite creating Jigawa State out of Kano.That makes it 71.
Let us break it down, it simply means that when Kano is compared to Lagos; Jigawa came out of Kano with 27 Local Governments...Can you imagine that.?
When you add 27 to 44 you have 71.There are too many things that one may not be able to say once.
Meaning a State that has the same Status like Lagos is now having 71 local governments indirectly and that is with the status of state given to Jigawa which was an extraction from Kano.
The objective of dividing regions to states on 5th May, 1967 as announced by Yakubu Gowon was to reduce the influence of Ojukwu in Eastern Region .Check the history.
2. Let each States retain at least 70% of their Tax Revenue as Tax Derivation.
Then bring 30% to the Federation Account.
3. Let all Major Tax Collection Responsibility be left to the states.
4. Then Share the Revenue at the Centre at 30% to Federal and 70% to all States.
5.Let States share 10% of their revenue to the local government in their respective states.Federal should leave Local Government Matters.The autonomy they are showing to us is a deception.The Cheating is on.
If you like, have 200 Local Government ; that becomes your problem as a State.
6.Remove Local Government Creation from the Exclusive Legislative List.
Let states decide to create local government for ease of management and bringing of government closer to their people as they deem fit.
7.Let each state have its own police and security arrangement.
8.Cancel Oil Well Allocation to individuals. Let it be given to the state that owns the oil.How can one individual become rich via rent economy.
9. Each State should invest in income generating business with their land as equity.
10. Oil Producing States should have modular Refinery run by private sector and their equity should be based on the fact that the oil is found on their land.
11. Cut Recurrent Expenditure.Reduce National Assembly to just one.Pay them maximum of P.S salary monthly. Peter Obi is an Expert in cutting governance cost.Let us all sit down and work it out.
12. Finally, avoid too much of foreign loans. Reduce interest rate to 5% in all banks.Then provide credit to the real sector.Minimise loan that is based on collateral.Fund Start ups with one year moratorium loan while linking various data together to monitor money laundry and ensure security nationwide.
Dr. Gbenga Adeoye hold a PhD in Management Accounting .
He is a Fellow of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria,
A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria.
An Arbitrator of UK and Nigeria with Interest in Law, Security and Criminology.
He is Passionate about Good Governance, Tax Justice and Economic Development of Africa.
He can be reached on gbengaglobal@gmail.com
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