…Says States Should Be Allowed To Exploit Own Resources
A renowned legal practitioner and icon of the legal profession in Nigeria, Chief B.M. Wifa (SAN), has stressed the need for Nigerians to move away from tribal politics if the country must succeed like other countries of the world.
This was as he said that political parties in Nigeria should be based on ideologies to function properly in the country’s polity.
The respected legal icon made these observations on Tuesday in his office in Port-Harcourt in his overview of Nigeria’s 58th Independence Anniversary which was celebrated across the country on Monday, October 1st, in commemoration of the country’s independence from Britain on October 1, 1960.
Wifa said that Nigerians could live together as one people despite the differences but noted that there should be justice as the country pursues peace and unity.
He noted that Nigerians should be free to practise any religion of their choice in their parts of the country but stressed the need for unity among the people.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria, however, maintained that the problem of Nigeria is the allocation of revenue and proposed that the country should go back to the 1963 Constitution where the regions as they then were, created wealth for themselves out of their natural resources and retained fifty per cent of the revenue of what was produced and then shared thirty per cent of the revenue with other regions in the country with only twenty per cent going to the federal government.
He said that the 36 States of the Federation should be allowed to control their resources and appealed to the Federal Government to remove the “provision” that prevents States from exploiting the resources in their States.
According to him, if the States would be allowed to exploit their resources in agricultural, mining, manufacturing and human capital development sectors, there would be more money for the States to share, adding that the State governments will also have the “incentive” to grow their State economies.
He said that States could retain fifty per cent of the revenue of what they produce and then share 30 per cent of the revenue with other States of the federation while the federal government could take 20 per cent.
Wifa said that this was the revenue sharing formula in Nigeria after independence and suggested that the country should go back to the 1963 Constitution, but not back to regionalism which existed at the time.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria said that the call for restructuring in Nigeria by some Nigerians should not be seen as “selfish” by other Nigerians and reiterated the call for restructuring in the country.
He said: “I’m an advocate of restructuring not in the sense of going back to the regions but in the sense of allowing states to harness, develop and exploit the natural resources within their states and then by the formula that I’m sure will be found equitable, Nigeria will have more money for her citizens. It’s just one aspect of it. I’ve already written about some other issues that I’ve had the cause to look at to make Nigeria grow”.
He noted with concern that the main source of “income” for the country comes mainly from oil and gas where the States in the Federation would go to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, for revenue sharing and expressed the need for the federal government to allow the States to control their resources and make more money available for the whole country.
