Days of sharing revenue over, FG tells states, LGs

By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA—THE Federal Government, yesterday, told states and local governments that the days of coming to Abuja to share money were over, following dwindling allocations from the federation account.

This was stated in Abuja by the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, at the opening of  a “Two-day National Workshop on Alternative Sources of Revenue Generation for Sustainable Development on States and Local Government Councils in Nigeria.”

Osinbajo, who was represented by Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, said Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, allocations were not only meant to pay salaries at the states and local government areas but for development.

He said the recent announcement by the National Bureau of Statics, NBS, on the country exiting recession indicated one of the stages in developing the economy.

He said: “This conference is coming at a time President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is working very hard to build the vision for the Nigerian economy after a period of declining revenue and declining growth.

“The recently announced exist from recession is simply one of the stages in the development of this economy, the growth of this economy for future generations and we are determined to build an economy that works for all Nigerians, not just for the rich.

“This commitment is critical and engines of this commitment are states and local governments and as you know, there are no federal people, everybody lives in the states or local governments.

“The states have to step up and generate that revenue because the days we simply as commissioners come every month to collect money are over for good.

‘’We have to adjust and many are adjusting incredibly well and I want to encourage those who are yet to get into the train to do so.

“So for this economy to grow with the way we intended, every state and local government must be sustainable, fiscally sustainable, must be able to meet their obligations.

‘’The obligation of the state and local government is not just for payment of salaries alone but for development, they have critical roles in development and in the recent economic challenges, even to pay salaries became a challenge.   This has been extremely a worrying development.”

According to him, the government has worked very hard to ensure that states can lay the foundation for growth.

He said:  ‘’The other one is the refund from the Paris Club over deduction to enable states clear backlog of arrears of salaries and created room for investments that would drive growth.

‘’The third of it, which will be developed jointly among  the Ministry of Finance, the National Economic Council and the state governments was to institute 22-point sustainability plan which all the state governments signed up to 22 reforms that  mirror the gamut of the reforms to the government at the federal level that aims to cut cost, increase efficiency and its revenues.

“We all know the story of over-reliance on oil.  What has happened and is important at this stage to just give you some concepts.   In June 2014, in one month, FAAC shared N1 trillion, but 2016 that lowered to N1 billion.

‘’So you can see the collapse in revenue and how this economy has shown resilience by showing the recession that ended was not a prolonged recession and we bench-marked and we also thanked the efforts of the Nigerian people to ensure it was not a prolonged recession which would have been disastrous for us.

“Now we have built the foundation for growth it has to be rapid development, accelerating the height of reforms at all levels.

“I want to encourage those who have embraced it to continue to do so, but I want to also encourage those who have not started the reform to quickly do so, it is not too late.

‘’I believe if we continue and move on the right path to diversify the economy, Nigeria will rise and fulfil the potential if we work hard. If we take to hard work, it will take less talk and more work.”

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