Former Health Minister, Prof Isaac Adewole, recently proposed a system of fiscal federalism where states would receive funds based on their contributions to the federation account.
During an appearance on the socio-political program “Inside Sources with Laolu Akande” aired on Channels Television, Adewole emphasized the importance of allowing local government areas to operate as an independent tier of government.
Although he acknowledged that it might be too late to revert to regionalism, Adewole advocated for states to have more autonomy to develop according to the resources available within their boundaries.
He said;
“I am an apostle of fiscal and physical federalism. We need to look at how we share the resources of this country. If you have a law that prevents you from selling alcohol, that law should also prevent you from sharing money from alcohol. We should be honest with ourselves. States that prohibit the sale of alcohol should not share out of VAT from alcohol. Straight forward.
“Then we should also ask each state what they are bringing to the table. A situation where states only share money from oil is absurd and that is why we are where we are today because the other states are not bringing anything to the table.
“What is happening to our gold, bitumen, lithium? The resources from all of these, where are they? The only thing we know is oil money.”
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