LG BOSS SEEKS ALTERNATIVE REVENUE FORMULA

The Chairman, Remo North Local Government, Ogun State, Mr. John Obafemi, has canvassed the adoption of a new revenue sharing formula among the three tiers of government if the nation intends to make the local government administration the focus of development at the grass roots.

Obafemi, who spoke at the Guest Forum of the Ogun State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists on Thursday, said the 52.6 per cent allocated to the Federal Government in the current sharing formula did not justify the claims that the government was desirous of developing all parts of the country.

The council boss, who is also the Chairman, Association of Local Governments of Nigeria in Ogun State, wondered why the Federal Government should shoulder the responsibility of constructing internal roads, running education, culture and tourism and agriculture, among other sectors.

He said, 'These sectors are supposed to be within the ambit of the state and the local governments. Why should the Federal Government construct roads within Ogun State? If the Federal Government should construct roads at all, they should be inter-state roads.

'Where is the cassava plantation of the Federal Government? Tell me, what is the justification behind the over-bloated budget to the Ministry of Agriculture at the national level? The states and the local governments should be left with the running of education and all these cases of strike, decay infrastructure and crisis in the education sector will reduce.

'The government at the centre does not have any business with sectors like culture and tourism. Those areas should be left for the other tiers of government.'

Obafemi suggested that the federal and state governments should be allocated 30 per cent each of the federal allocation while the states, under the new fiscal regime, should be allocated 40 per cent to care for their respective responsibilities.

He said, 'It is only the Federal Government that returns money to the treasury at the end of the fiscal year while other tiers of government continue to complain of lack of funds. So much money is allocated to ministries in those areas with no commensurate result.'