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A foundation member of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu, has expressed total support for the proposed review of the existing Revenue Allocation Formula, saying it is long overdue.
Mr Okechukwu described the planned review as a “Win-Win- Balanced Federalism via fiscal restructuring,” especially now that the National Assembly is in the process of amending the country’s Constitution.
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He stated his position while addressing journalists a few hours after Mohammed Bello, the Chairperson, Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) announced plans to review the Revenue Allocation Formula.
Mr Bello said the aim of the review was to produce a fair, just and equitable revenue sharing formula that reflects the current responsibilities, needs and capacities of the three tiers of government, in line with constitutional rules.
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Mr Okechukwu, a former director general of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), canvassed the urgent need to reduce the huge extant revenue allocation to federal government from 52 per cent to 40 per cent, to guarantee ultimate balanced federalism.
This, he said, would enhance the progress and prosperity of the citizenry, albeit ultimately advancing the frontiers of grassroots democracy.
“My observation over the last decades informed that the political banditry, ultra-nepotism and tension soaked presidential election in our dear fatherland is largely due to unbalanced federalism. And unbalanced federalism is an outlier of do or die struggle of who presides over the huge Oil Revenue (a.k.a. national cake) at the over centralised federal government,” he said.
In this context, Mr Okechukwu said that he agreed wholeheartedly with Mr Bello’s submission that the review of the vertical revenue-sharing formula, which determines how federally collected revenues are shared among the federal, state, and local governments had been long overdue.
He argued that this 33 years old revenue formula – 52.68 per cent federal government, 26.72 per cent states, 20.60 per cent LGAs, 4.8 percent Special Funds, 1 per cent FCT and Ecological Fund, 1.68 per cent Natural Resources, and 0.5 per cent Stabilisation Fund, is antithetical to development and retrogressive.
“May I humbly submit that In line with RMAFC constitutional responsibility, as a matter of urgent national security and in response to the evolving socio-economic, political and fiscal realities should propose revenue formula of – 40 per cent FG, 40 per cent states, 10 per cent LGAs and 10 per cent to the rest,” Mr Okechukwu retorted.
When asked why the LGAs, a vital tier should be slashed to only 10 per cent, the APC chieftain countered that since all genuine efforts made in the last 25 years to retrieve LGAs from the “stranglehold of our Emperor governors, even the financial autonomy initiative by President Tinubu, which culminated in the 11 July , 2024 Supreme Court landmark judgment had failed woefully, it has become pragmatic imperative to stop chasing shadows.”
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He recalled that revenue allocation review exercises in the past had been controversial and marred by hate pandemic of ignorant political bandits masquerading as ethno-religious champions.
Mr Okechukwu, accordingly, appealed to divisive elements and agents of polarisation to sheath their arsenal and acknowledge the gospel truth; that abject poverty, grinding hunger, gross unemployment, crisis of inequality and palpable insecurity are still unfortunately plaguing all the six geopolitical zones.
He called on President Bola Tinubu, the governors, national and state legislators and patriots to breathe life into the Constitution, especially now the document is being altered.
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