Governors charge Buhari to transmit revenue sharing formula to National Assembly

Exactly a year, after the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) proposed and submitted a new revenue-sharing formula to President Muhammadu Buhari, governors of the 36 states of the federation, have become unhappy and impatient with the delay in getting the proposal signed into law.

Accordingly, the state chief executives rose from a meeting that ended in the early hours of Thursday in Abuja and resolved to meet with President Buhari to persuade him to urgently transmit the proposed revenue formula to the National Assembly for enactment into law.

The proposal which was submitted to the President in April 2022, states that the Federal Government will take 45.17 per cent; the states, 29.79 per cent and the local government councils, 21.04 per cent.

While the Federal Government will shed 3.33 per cent, states and local governments have their shares increased by 3.07 per cent and 4.4 per cent respectively.

In the current sharing arrangement, the Federal Government takes 52.68 per cent of the revenue share, states get 26.72 per cent, while local governments get 20.6 per cent.

In an interview with journalists after the meeting of the governors at the headquarters of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), chairman of NGF and Sokoto state governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, disclosed that the matter got prominent metion at the meeting.

“We also discussed the new revenue formula submitted to Mr President by the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission and the need for us to approach Mr President on the need for him to present the new draft formula to the National Assembly before this administration winds up.” He said.

“We are going to meet with Mr President as a forum and we’ll appeal to him to present that formula to the National Assembly. We will see.” Tambuwal stressed.

Governors who attended the meeting include those of Kaduna, Kebbi, Kogi, Niger, Imo, Edo, Borno, Adamawa, Jigawa, Oyo, Nasarawa, Taraba, Katsina.

Buhari had hinged his delay in transmitting the proposed revenue formula to the National Assembly on the constitution review exercise.

He had said he would await the outcome of the constitutional review before presenting the report to the National Assembly.

When he received the report from the RMAFC, the President had said: ”Ordinarily, I would have gone ahead to table this report before the National Assembly as a bill for enactment. However, since the review of the vertical revenue allocation formula is a function of the roles and responsibilities of the different tiers of government, I will await the outcome of the constitutional review process, especially as some of the proposed amendments would have a bearing on the recommendations contained herein.”

Tambuwal also disclosed that governors equally discussed the guidelines by the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) on financial regulation that is working on how to ensure that Nigeria is taken out of the grey list of the Financial Task Force.

“We also discussed the issue of primary healthcare and the progress made so far during our induction course. Some states that have attained some milestones are going to receive awards for their performance.” Tambuwal added.

He said the issue of stamp duties being owed to both the Federal Government and the states and warehoused by the Central Bank was also discussed addind that “we are working to make sure that it is released for disbursement to both the Federal Government and the States ”

Some of the recommendations in the RMAFC report as submitted to the President include:

“Establishing local government as a tier of government and the associated abrogation of the state/local government account, moving airports, fingerprints, identification and criminal records from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent legislative list; empowering the RMAFC to enforce compliance with remittance of accruals into and disbursement of revenue from the Federation Account as well as streamlining the procedure for reviewing the revenue allocation formula.”

The President had assured members of the Commission that the government would immediately subject the report to its internal review and approval process while awaiting finalisation of efforts by the National Assembly.

According to the president, the decision against issuing an executive modification order is in line with democratic tenets.

“I am aware that the present revenue allocation formula has not been reviewed since the last exercise carried out in 1992.

“Considering the changing dynamics of our political economy such as privatisation, deregulation, funding arrangement of primary education, primary health care and the growing clamour for decentralisation among others, it is necessary that we take another look at our revenue sharing formula, especially the vertical aspects that relate to the tiers of government.

“This becomes more compelling as we need to reduce our infrastructural deficit, make more resources available for tackling insecurity, confront climate change and its associated global warming and make life more meaningful for our rapidly growing population,” the President said.

According to him, equitable distribution has always been observed in the sharing of national resources.

“‘I want to let you all know that I have keenly followed most of the discussions held in the geopolitical consultative process and one thing that struck me clearly was the agreement that a review of our vertical revenue formula cannot and should not be an emotional or sentimental discussion and it cannot be done arbitrarily,” Buhari said.

”All over the world, revenue and resource allocation have always been a function of the level of responsibilities attached to the different components or tiers of government.

”I am, therefore, happy to note that the discussions were held along these lines and rested squarely on roles and responsibilities as spelt out in the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

”However, I also note that in reaching the final decisions at most of these engagements, not much emphasis was placed on the fact that the Second Schedule of the Nigerian constitution contains Sixty Eight (68) items on the Exclusive Legislative List and the remaining Thirty (30) items on the Concurrent List requiring both the Federal and State Government to address.”

Buhari, therefore, said for the nation to have a lasting review of the present revenue allocation formula, there must first be an agreement on the responsibilities to be carried out by all the tiers of Government.