•Says President ought to have improved state funding first
Public Administration scholar, Prof Ladipo Adamolekun, has faulted the Supreme Court judgment granting financial autonomy to local councils, noting that President Bola Tinubu should have first reviewed the revenue allocation in favour of states before granting the autonomy.
He said this would be in tandem with Tinubu’s campaign promises as stated in his manifesto that, “The allocation of revenue between the federal and state governments will be adjusted to give greater flexibility to foster grassroots economic developments.”
Adamolekun, who was a World Bank consultant, in an exclusive interview with The Guardian, said he was surprised that the President did not start his reforms by sending the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMFAC) Act to the National Assembly for review.
He said: “The first steps he ought to have taken, which he stated in the manifesto, are revenue allocation review, and review of the legislative lists. I am surprised that 14 months into his administration, he has not done it. I expect him to do it now and ensure the National Assembly expedites action on it like it passed the new national anthem bill into law.”
While suggesting how the revenue allocation should be shared, Adamolekun said 35 per cent for the Federal Government while 65 per cent should be equally shared among the six geo-political zones that should be taken as subnationals.
To him, in the proposed arrangement, it is the responsibility of each geopolitical zone to determine criteria to share the money among themselves.
He noted that the development commissions being established for all regions is a pointer that Nigeria is gravitating towards recognising regions as sub nationals and centres of development.
On the Supreme Court judgment that granted financial autonomy to the local councils, Adamolekun said he disagreed because the Federal Government ought not to have anything to do with the local councils in a federal system of government.
He said: “States and local governments are subordinating jurisdictions of the sub national governments in every federal system in the world. In other words, local governments are subordinating jurisdictions of sub national states or regions or provinces. Anything below federal is sub national.
Adamolekun also criticised Tinubu for creating Ministry of Livestock Development, which he said was against, “The June 2018 consensus within the National Economic Council (NEC) on ranching through a National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP), which was an echo of previous ranching initiatives by two regional governments in the 1950s and 1960s.”
According to him, it is not the responsibility of the Federal Government to dabble into livestock business, stating: “The FG cannot and should not be expected to fund ranches across the states in the federation. This will be antithetical to the devolved federation that many of the same governors are clamouring for.”
