A former member of the House of Representatives, Sam Onuigbo, has charged Nigerians to hold state governors responsible for the economic hardship in the country despite the huge financial inflows accruing to them from the removal of the country’s petroleum subsidy.
Onuigbo, who made the assertion in a chat with newsmen in Abuja, regretted that most of the state governors failed to reciprocate President Bola Tinubu’s liberal fiscal reforms.
The President of Global Legislators Organisation for A Balanced Environment (GLOBE Legislators International) noted that since President Tinubu has done well in funnelling a greater percentage of the revenue accruing from the subsidy removal, state governors should be equally magnanimous in allowing the Local Government Councils to receive their due share.
Recall that state governors under the present dispensation, including Hope Uzodimma (Imo), Abdullahi Sule (Nasarawa) and Bala Mohammed (Bauchi), admitted that the states have never had it so good with increased revenue as under the current Tinubu administration.
Speaking when he received a delegation of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors in Lafia, the state capital, Governor Sule had noted that Nasarawa State’s share from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) increased from an average of between N3.8 billion and N4.5 billion before the subsidy removal to around N14 billion to N16 billion currently.
“With the removal of subsidy today, I can tell you for free, Nasarawa State is receiving an average of N14bn to N16bn every month,” he noted.
Also, earlier in the year, the Imo State governor recalled how state governments were receiving N784 billion, stressing that monthly FAAC distribution rose to between N1.8 trillion and N2.6 trillion after President Tinubu’s reforms took root.
While regretting the past era, when state governors had to embark on numerous trips to Abuja in search of emergency bailouts, the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) chairman remarked that the increased revenues accruing to states have strengthened the capacity of subnational governments to not only meet their financial obligations, but also embark on infrastructure projects and other social development efforts.
Last week, the Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, praised President Tinubu for injecting huge funds to the states, stressing that the federal government deserves commendation for augmenting resources available to states.
But, noting how only Governors Babagana Zulum of Borno State and Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State allow the various local government councils in their states to receive full value of the federal account allocation directly, Onuigbo frowned at the continued use of Joint Account Committees (JACs) by state governors to stifle the council chairmen.
Onuigbo, who is also a former Finance Commissioner in Abia State, lamented that while the federal government gets 52.68 per cent, the state governors have been receiving 47.32 per cent revenue from the FAAC without allowing the councils to access the 20.60 per cent that should constitutionally go to them.
Wondering where huge revenues available to the state governors, especially the portion belonging to the local governments go, the former two-term federal lawmaker argued that denying local governments of needed funds contributed to the general economic downturn leading to unemployment and insecurity at the rural areas.
He said: “Governors are no longer running around in search of funds to pay salaries. We are also looking at a situation where resources meant for the local government are made available to them to pursue agriculture, so that citizens at the rural level can now engage in productive activities.
“When you talk about agriculture, or constructing culverts and tarring of rural roads, you recognise that once the local governments have these resources they would also be able to identify individuals that have the potential to cause trouble. The challenges they cannot handle they escalate up to the state level or federal agencies like DSS (Department of State Security).
“We hope to see a situation where the president is commended for this impetus through the collaborative efforts of the officials at the subnational level so that we see development. One of the speakers spoke of what was happening within the regions in the first republic.”
Onuigbo, who sponsored Nigeria’s signature Climate Change Act in 2021, said that the fact that many local government council headquarters are overgrown with weeds is a ready sign that the state governors have banished the third tier of government, thereby denying the course of even development.
The former member of the House of Representatives said that next year’s election means a lot to Nigeria, stressing that re-electing President Tinubu would avert possibility of policy somersaults that could pull back the gains already recorded.
He enjoined voters to challenge state governors to account for the generous financial lift that they received from President Tinubu, pointing out that what the President expected was that the state governors should free local government funds for grassroots development.
“If we have a similar synergy among the local governments, state and federal levels, in no distant time you will have a well-rounded nation, where rural to urban migration and unemployment will be drastically reduced. We know we have the resources, and it needs to percolate down to the grassroots,” he declared.
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