FAAC allocations: Citizens wallow in misery as govs cede duties to FG amid N5.34tr cut
• States share N5.34 trillion FAAC allocations in one year
• Yiaga, BudgIT, 11 others demand explanation on N570b disbursed to states
• Corruption, insecurity compound sub-national crises
Despite increasing revenue profiles of state governments from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) reaching N5.34 trillion in the first year of President Bola Tinubu, the sub-national governments seem to have abdicated their social contracts with the people, hiding under the failure of the centre, while their citizens wallow in abject poverty.
Local government allocations were routed through their respective states until a recent court ruling that upheld the autonomy of the third tier of government. There were accusations that most of the governors merely used their councils’ funds as they pleased by giving peanuts to the local governments.
The apex court ruled that the allocations to joint state and local government accounts were merely procedural practices adopted in the past. It emphasised that it was not the intention of the 1999 Constitution for governors to retain funds due to the LGAs.
The court declared that the amount allocated to and credited to Local Government Councils in the Federation Account can be paid directly by the Federation to democratically elected Local Government Councils, among other rulings.
Today, many states are non-existent in terms of social welfare, a situation that has led to welfare deterioration at grassroots levels, reports have suggested,
The challenge has become endemic, pushing over 133 million Nigerians to multidimensional poverty. While the governors have not been transparent with utilisation of the allocations from FAAC, interventions by the Federal Government disbursed through the states are either hoarded as seen during the COVID-19 crisis, diverted for private use or disbursed to party members. This amounts to double jeopardy for the people.
Sadly, the Federal Government bears the brunt of poor performance. For instance, not many protesters in the ongoing nationwide #EndBadGovernance protest have taken up their state governors for excessive privatisation of statecraft and misuse of public resources.
Perhaps, if the state governments had been more frugal, transparent, accountable and development-oriented, the ever-growing economic crises seen, which have defied several initiatives, might have been tamed accordingly.
It is no longer news that Nigerians, who now live below a dollar per day, can no longer have a decent meal. Decent meals today have gone beyond the reach of an average Nigerian at over 120 per cent.
From the FAAC record, about N15.58 trillion was received by the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory in the past four years, ending last November. A report by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) showed that between 2020 and 2021, the states shared about N8.8 trillion, checks by The Guardian also revealed that as of 2022, the states shared N3.16 trillion. In the first half of 2023, N1.15 trillion was shared. They shared in July 2023, N966.1 billion; August, N1.1 trillion; September N903.4 billion and N906.9 billion, which brings the total amount shared from 2020 to October 2023 to about N15.58 trillion.
Apart from the monthly FAAC allocation, the Federal Government has equally, in the last few months, released more than N570 billion to the 36 states to expand livelihood support to their citizens. Painfully, the impact of this livelihood support is yet to be felt, this is amidst claims of hoarding of palliatives by state governments and their agents.
Amidst these allocations and Federal Government largesse, the leadership of the states is not in tune with what the masses are going through.The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had, in its National Multidimensional Poverty Index report, said 133 million Nigerians were multi-dimensionally poor. It is believed that the situation is worse today, considering the level of inflation seen in the last two years after the poverty index report was released.
In 2023, the poverty clock showed that nearly 12 per cent of the world’s population in extreme poverty lived in Nigeria, considering the poverty threshold at $1.9 per day.
Indeed, in the NBS multidimensional poverty report index of 0.257, Sokoto, Bayelsa, and Jigawa States led the list of states in Nigeria with the highest multidimensional poverty index, having an aggregate of 14.18 million impoverished people.
The Bureau said factors such as healthcare, food insecurity, education, nutrition, and access to cooking fuel contributed the most to the national poverty index.
Specifically, 65 per cent of the poor people in Nigeria, which translates to 86 million, live in the Northern part of the country, while 35 per cent (47 million) live in the southern part.
The number of poor people living in rural areas was estimated at 105.98 million, with a multidimensional poverty index (MPI) of 0.302, while 26.94 million people are poor in urban areas, printing an MPI of 0.155.
The state of poverty in the states has equally been triggered by the scarce disposable income among the masses. It has become difficult for an average Nigerian to have a decent meal.
According to NBS, the minimum monthly cost of a healthy meal diet for an adult family of four persons has gone up by over 55 per cent in the first six months of the year. For instance, as of January 2024, it costs an average family of four in Lagos N122,765 to prepare a meal. The figure rose to N184,971 by June.
In Rivers State, in January, it was N115,133 rose to N174,814 by June. In the FCT, an average family of four can use N106,201 in January but had to have N167,057 five months after.
The inability of states to reduce the level of poverty in their respective domains has thrown up several queries especially considering the humongous allocations, which accrue to their monthly, apart from their internally generated revenues (IGR).
Already, 13 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have urged the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to oblige Nigerians with detailed information on how it disbursed more than N570 billion to the 36 states to expand livelihood support to their citizens.
The group urged the President to explain to Nigerians what the money disbursed was meant for and how much each state got from the total sum claimed to have been sent to states.
The CSOs want to know among others what the monies are released to states for specifically, in which ministry is it domiciled, and how much each state gets. The CSOs making the call include Yiaga Africa, BudgIT Foundation, Accountability Lab Nigeria, Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria, #FixPolitics, Global Rights as well as Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA).
Others are the Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), Sesor Empowerment Foundation, TechHer and Women Advocate Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC).
They noted that in the 38-paragraph speech, the president highlighted some of the government’s policies to course-correct the economy largely in the medium to long term. The CSOs however, regretted that the president did not address the core demands of Nigerians across the country, who are calling for good governance and immediate change from the downward trend in accountability and social development.
They stated that the President also failed to acknowledge that the security force’s response to protesters had resulted in the extra-judicial killing of several protesters, and missed the opportunity to assure the nation that their perpetrators will be held accountable.
“The Nigerian government must not forget that “Sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria, from whom government, through this Constitution, derives all its powers and authority, Section 14(2)(a) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), thus it is imperative to engage citizens from the perspective of their needs within their stated demands.
They said: “Over the last few weeks, Nigerians have planned, mobilised, curated different demands, and given the government adequate notice.
“We recognise that citizens have taken ownership of the demand to #EndBadGovernance and have contributed to the list of demands in circulation from their pain points.
“As civil society groups and stakeholders in the polity, we have streamlined the demands based on consultations, to midwife a peaceful and holistic engagement of issues by the government. The President has expressed the government’s openness to dialogue with protesters on these demands.
“It is therefore our candid advice that this is pursued by officials and representatives of both sides with sincerity of purpose. This should begin with an immediate release of all arrested peaceful protesters and sanctions against security agents who attacked unharmed peaceful protesters.
“We remind the government that should security forces continue to aggravate protesters, it may become difficult to broker a dialogue.
“We recommend that representatives of the National Peace Committee and reputable civil society groups serve as facilitators and observers of this dialogue process and its outcomes.”
Amidst all this profligacy on the part of state governments; all of these states are in huge debt. As of March 31, the states’ domestic debts were estimated at N4 trillion. Whereas DMO does not have a comprehensive up-to-date profile of the sub-national debts, many states have also incurred trillions of indebtedness to unpaid contractors and via salary/pension arrears.
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