Ikpeazu: Nigeria can’t Continue to Ignore Call for Fiscal Federalism

Ikpeazu: Nigeria can’t Continue to Ignore Call for Fiscal Federalism

By Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo

As the clamour to stop the federal government from collecting value added tax (VAT) rages on, the Governor of Abia State, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, Thursday called for the enthronement of fiscal federalism, saying that Nigeria cannot continue to ignore the call for true federalism principle.

He said that the time is ripe for Nigeria’s component states to be vested with power to manage the resources within their respective domains, and in the case of natural resources pay loyalties to the federal government.

Governor Ikpeazu bared his mind when he received in audience a delegation of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) led by the federal commissioner representing Abia State, Dr. Chris Akomas, at the Government Lodge, Aba.

Recalling the sharing of power between the federal government and the federating regional governments in the First Republic, Ikpeazu noted that development was on faster traction due to fiscal federalism.

He pointed out that the defunct Eastern Region of Nigeria was ranked as the fastest growing economy in the world during the times of Dr. Michael Okpara when there was true federalism with different regions controlling their resources.

Apparently alluding to the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), Ikpeazu faulted the 30 per cent reservation for exploration in frontier states.

“Sincerely speaking, I don’t think the federal government should reserve any amount, even one per cent for mineral development because the federal government has no ownership of minerals,” he said, adding that the Federal Ministry of Mines and Mineral Development should be concerned with making policies.

The governor lamented that the overbearing control of resources by the federal government was killing local industries established near the source of raw materials, citing the Modern Ceramics Umuahia established by the old Eastern Region.

Drawing an analogy with human beings, the Abia governor was emphatic that the federating units are differently endowed by nature. He therefore said that each region or state must be allowed to control its endowments and bear the attendant hazards that usually manifest as environmental degradation.

On the ongoing move to review the revenue sharing formula, Ikpeazu lauded RMAFC for democratising its activities by going to the grassroots to feel the pulse of the people and know what they want in the forthcoming amendment of the sharing formula.

Earlier in his remarks, Akomas, who is the RMAFC Committee Chairman on Disbursement, said the team was in Abia to sensitize the state government on the ongoing process on the review of the revenue sharing formula by the federal government.

He stated that the power of reviewing the revenue sharing formula is vested on the commission, adding that response to the review is urgent as the next stage would be the zonal public hearings where states would make their positions known.

The federal commissioner, who is a former deputy governor of Abia, was accompanied on the visit by the federal commissioner representing Rivers State in RMAFC, Mr Temple Wener Osondi, and some senior directors in the commission.

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