If the President Obasanjo led Federal Government had not seized Lagos state LG allocations when the LASG under Gov Tinubu created new LGs, then today, Lagos revenue would not be so much more than that of Kaduna, Oyo, Kano. When the funds were seized, Lagos being in opposition did not beg or slow down, they looked inwards. Katsina and others that also created LGs then had to eat the humble pie, they cancelled those LGs. Only Lagos held out and that was because Lagos was in opposition. The holding out and sourcing of revenue from other avenues has made Lagos financially independent today while other states like Kaduna, Oyo, Kano, Rivers and all others that can make money from landuse as does Lagos remain desolate by way of IGR. Also, Lagos has not done more than scratch the surface of the possible Lagos Internally Generated Revenue IGR while most other states are more far behind. A state with no wage regulation has not started taking income tax as wage regulation must be done before everybody, every worker can be captured in the personal income tax net. What Lagos is taking is not more than land use charges which belongs actually to LGs, some income taxes from the workers of big companies, LASTMA fines and etc. I will say over 90 percent of possible volume of income tax in Lagos is still outside the net. A state that has not captured all workers can not solve unemployment.


Lagos generates over 80 percent of its revenue and Lagos is followed by Sokoto which generates close to 40 percent. Lagos was pushed by the President Obasanjo government while Sokoto was not. In that wise, Sokoto performed better than Lagos and would have bested Lagos if they were generating 80 percent of their revenue but they are not, leaving only Lagos as the fore runner.


Most other states are at various stages of insolvency despite containing huge cities burstling with people and economic activities as well as valuable real and farming estates.


REFERENCES


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/...

https://www.google.com.ng/url?sa=t&...



https://www.google.com.ng/url?sa=t&...



https://www.google.com.ng/url?sa=t&...

Lagos will always be at the forefront

if this thread blows up, I will come back here to talk about the real achievements of Tinubu, Fashola and hint at what I suspect ambode is trying to do