Leaders of Afenifere, the Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Chief Ayo Adebanjo and the National Publicity Secretary, Yinka Odumakin, have berated a national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, over his call for the review of the country’s revenue allocation formula and that he must do beyond talking.
The APC national leader had, on Saturday, made the call for the review of the country’s “cumbersome revenue formula,” adding that the governors of the South-West region particularly must be united in boosting their internally generated revenues.
Tinubu, while speaking at the inauguration of the Ondo State Revenue House, in Akure, noted that such a step would help to ameliorate unemployment and hunger experienced by the people.
He said, “The cumbersome revenue formula of Nigeria as of today needs to be reviewed. If the fiscal element of our Nigerian economy is strictly well supervised, we can turn our population to prosperity, instead of our liability. You can equally use the synergy with the Oodua Investment to collaborate not only on Amotekun syndrome. Amotekun is a creation of necessity for hoodlums caused by unemployment, frustration and hunger.
“If everybody is engaged, Amotekun will be a pet. If you work with Oodua Investment, look at the area of collaboration. I know Ondo for (its) great potential for gas, energy and tourism to feed this country.”
Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, in his remarks, said the state was generating between N600m and N700m on a monthly basis.
“We were able to generate N1.5bn on a monthly basis in 2018,” the governor said.
But reacting, Adebanjo argued that rather than making a call, Tinubu should ensure that the APC-led Federal Government fulfilled its campaign promises to Nigeria, including restructuring.
He said, “The statement may not be more than a campaign slogan for Tinubu. He knows that all these issues about revenue generation and sharing are contained in restructuring. If he is convinced about restructuring, then he should press for it now. Restructuring was part of the APC campaign promises; what have they done about it?
“He should join the clamour for the restructuring of this country. We are fed up with the play on words.”
Odumakin, in his own reaction said, “The views he (Tinubu) has made public now, he should canvass with those at the helms of affairs in the country. More resources should go to the federating units. We should not talk so much about revenue sharing but revenue generation.
“Every section of the country must be revenue-generating. We have solid minerals even in the North, where Zamfara is now taking the lead at the moment. There will always be contentions when we talk about sharing but Nigeria should focus more on generation.”