THE Niger State governor, Dr Mu'azuBabangida Aliyu, has given the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC), a knock on the head over the dwindling fortunes of the country in the area of oil revenue generation.Governor Aliyu made the scathing remarks at the workshop organised by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMFAAC) in conjunction with Niger State government, in Minna, the state capital, on Monday.The governor, who described the NNPC as a corrupt organisation criticised the organisation for allegedly not taking good account of the quantity of crude oil produced and the concomitant revenue generated, wondering that countries which could not boast of the same human capacity as Nigeria had adequate records of their oil.Governor Aliyu described the current revenue formula in the country as too lopsided, saying that rather than the Federal Government taking the lion share of the revenue, states and local government areas should take bigger size of the revenue.He said there were some functions currently handled by the Federal Government that could be better done by states and local governments, describing as irregular, the role of Federal Government in water provision, education, and agriculture, believing that the states and local governments had comparative advantages in such areas and should be allowed to handle them effectively by channelling the needed revenues for such sectors to the appropriate tiers of government.'Let me talk to you as a former Federal Permanent Secretary. I am aware that some ministries have more monies than they could handle, whereas states and council areas wallow in abject poverty. I call on the RMFAAC to reduce the revenue allocated to the Federal Government and increase those of the other tiers of government in order to allow them have adequate funds to function properly.Speaking on the theme of the workshop, Economic Diversification for Sustainable National Development, at the zonal advocacy workshop on economic diversification and enhanced revenue generation, Governor Aliyu noted that the workshop became imperative in view of the global economic crises and the impact on Nigerian economy as well as the challenges facing the North-Central zone in particular in meeting the ever-increasing financial commitments in service delivery.He lamented that governance was becoming increasingly challenging in view of the high expectations of the citizens, growing population, rising poverty and unemployment, coupled with the dynamics of national fiscal federalism and the skewed nature of revenue allocation, in addition to the peculiar situation many states have found themselves in the aftermath of the passage of the minimum wage bill by the Federal Government.According to him,the need for continuous advocacy, dialogue,consultation, and negotiation , amongst all the stakeholders had become very imperative to enable governments prepare for the challenges confronting the nation.Governor Aliyu called for an urgent diversification of the present oil revenue, stating that there was no way any country could attain its full economic potentials by over-relying on a monolithic product/commodity for sustainable development.In his welcome address, Chairman of RMFACC, Engineer Elias N. Mbam, noted that diversification of the nation's economy was the only guaranteed method of increasing the size of the national cake.Mbam noted that apart from the volatile nature of international market prices, oil and gas resources are exhaustible and non-renewable,hence, it was imperative to find other sustainable and dependable means of funding the national development.
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