PRESIDENT of African Development Bank, AfDB, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, yesterday, lamented that Nigeria is not practicing true federalism, but fatherism.
Adesina, who was the guest lecturer at the second inaugural lecture of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, in Akure, said Nigeria’s system is essentially a revenue-sharing system.
Speaking on the theme: ‘Towards a New Nigeria: From Federal Fatherism to a Commonwealth’, the AfDB boss said: “With stupendous resources, all concentrating at the centre, states are ever dependent on the centre. With the magnetic field of Federal Revenue Allocations, states are constantly pulled, powerless, into perennial dependency.”
His words: “This financial pilgrimage creates a sense of helplessness and overt dependency on the centre.
“State governors now spend more time in Abuja than they do in their states, seeking the monthly federal manna.
“Like a pendulum, ever moving from side to side in constant motion, so too has this unfortunate dependency become seemingly unstoppable.
“The truth, however, is that to survive and strive, states must become financially independent of the centre in Abuja.
This is federalism of fiscal dependency. It’s federalism that’s fiscally unhealthy for the states and the federal government. Because Nigeria depends on oil for over 70 per cent of government revenue, any decline in the price of oil creates fiscal and economic volatilities that reverberate across the states.
“What’s needed is greater economic and fiscal autonomy for the states. The issue is less about states or regional autonomy, but the financial and economic viability of Nigeria’s constituent states.