By: Opeoluwa Adeniji
Babatunde Fashola, Lagos State governor has challenged the Federal Government to defend how it spends the 52 percent revenue allocation it gets on a monthly basis from the federation account.
The governor made the inquiry while speaking at the flag-off of the expanded Lagos State Economic and Empowerment Programme, EEP, held at the Adeyemi Bero Auditorium, Alausa Secretariat, Ikeja, on Thursday.
Fashola condemned the FG for what he described as its inability to spend its huge percent of the allocation from the federation account for the betterment of the citizens.
He said the FG could use the large percent it collects as allocation to provide basic social amenities which would make life meaningful for Nigerians.
“There are three governments in the Nigeria family-the Federal, State and the local governments. The federal government gets 52 per cent of the total income of the country; the 36 states governments’ share 26 per cent, while the local governments share 22 percent. This is how our family is run,” the governor explains.
“We get income from three major sources; there are other ones but these are the main sources. One is oil, the other is charges and import duties. On imports duties, the central government in 2013, made an income of N1.4 trillion in six months. And this was from the Apapa Ports alone. We do not collect taxes from companies, all the companies in Nigeria, once you declare your profit, certain percentage is paid to the federal government. What we collect is personal income tax on the employees of the companies. Yet, the federal government has failed to provide constant electricity for its citizens. If there is power today, many companies will pick up,” Fashola added.
The governor said, “We are looking at an alternative to national failure because we would soon start to hear a lot of stories. Just remember that we used to have Berec batteries, where hundreds of people were employed in Lagos State.”
Meanwhile, Fashola has been picking on the Federal government of late as it would be remembered that during a lecture at the 50th birthday celebration of Timipre Sylva, former governor of Bayelsa, the Lagos State governor criticized President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP, saying their performance was poor and the condition of Nigerians worse than when Jonathan assumed office four years ago.
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