Gbawe:

Fstranger, there is general decorum on this thread . Why do you want to ruin that with your schizophrenia !!! Can't you ever talk like a normal person ?

lol

kulutempa:

Selfish interest leading ultimately to a better country? I doubt it.

I think Ekt-Bear means that the clamour for making more money available to the States , whatever the motivation of the Governors, is ultimately a good thing. If that is what he means , then I agree. We should then all look to hold our leaders more accountable . Equitable disbursement of what accrues to Nigeria , as National income, is always a laudable consideration. Ensuring judicious usage of funds , as you yourself agree below, should then be given priority.

In fact if we are serious in Nigeria, this is something that should have been included in our 1999 constitution for both the Federal and State governments or raised in parliament by our lazy legislators.

Gbawe:

Fstranger, there is general decorum on this thread . Why do you want to ruin that with your schizophrenia !!! Can't you ever talk like a normal person ?

Gbawe thank you, but the problem is that looking for general decorum on Nairaland in my view, is the same as looking for young virgins  in Lagos

kulutempa:

Selfish interest leading ultimately  to a better country?  I doubt it.

In this case, yes. Since the end result of this "selfish interest" will be more money spent at the state level than the federal.

I believe that the FG is even less efficient, less accountable and less impactful with its spending than the state governments (perhaps not everyone agrees with this.) So for me, I oppose anything that weakens the states relative to the FG.

ekt_bear:

It is a bit sad here that many don't understand the principle of federalism.

The truth is that both the federal and states govt are all looking for more money to be available for stealing.

In a country where there has never been a standard and effective accountability process.

What has the states done with the monies that have been allocated to them, and why is the FG dictating like an autocratis govt.

THE SINCERERITY OF PURPOSE IS MOST IMPORTANT HERE!!!
Who do we trust in Nigeria, The Fed, State, or LG

kulutempa:

Gbawe thank you, but the problem is that looking for general decorum on Nairaland in my view, is the same as looking for young virgins  in Lagos

totally agree.

Btw. . .

What guarantee is there as a governor that money you pay into this SWF account your state will ever get back?

I'd rather pay into a state SWF than a federal one.

What happens if I pay into a SWF and they use the money I paid in to build projects in Zamfara? Of what use is such a fund to me a citizen of Ekiti State, for example?

Gbawe:

totally agree.

You know I did not go to Oxford like you. I was born on the streets of Bariga, grew up in AJ city and was mentored by area fathers in Ikorodu and Idumota.

You can take the boy out of Lagos, YOU DARE NOT AND CANNOT TAKE LAGOS OUT OF THE BOY.

I proudly represent.  

coded guy:

The truth is that both the federal and states govt are all looking for more money to be available for stealing.

Agreed.

In a country where there has never been a standard and effective accountability process.

What has the states done with the monies that have been allocated to them, and why is the FG dictating like an autocratis govt.

THE SINCERERITY OF PURPOSE IS MOST IMPORTANT HERE!!!
Who do we trust in Nigeria, The Fed, State, or LG

None of them are sincere. . . LG, State, or FG. But I can demand more accountability in my LG than I can in my state. And I can demand more accountability in my state than in the Nigerian FG.

If the head of the SWF steals money and is Hausa or Igbo and I am demanding accountability, then people will say I am doing an ethnic witchhunt. So the money we paid in disappears, and there is no way to get it back.

ekt_bear:


If the head of the SWF steals money and is Hausa or Igbo and I am demanding accountability, then people will say I am doing an ethnic witchhunt. So the money we paid in disappears, and there is no way to get it back.

if you do it in your state they will say it is because he is not from your senatorial district.

coded guy:

The truth is that both the federal and states govt are all looking for more money to be available for stealing.

In a country where there has never been a standard and effective accountability process.

What has the states done with the monies that have been allocated to them, and why is the FG dictating like an autocratis govt.

THE SINCERERITY OF PURPOSE IS MOST IMPORTANT HERE!!!
Who do we trust in Nigeria, The Fed, State, or LG

Totally agree with all you have said. This is why I hold that the FG cannot be backed to behave autocratically especially as the agitations of the Governors for more money is legitimate and , ordinarily, the correct call. Of course we are Nigerians and we know some Governors would welcome more money to loot . This is why sincere reforms matter far more than anything else today. There should be a robust push for ensuring that there is greater transparency and accountability in Governance affairs . Sadly, I fear that the current arrangement suits everyone.

Gbawe:

The point is that more money should be going to the States. It does not really matter what the Governors have done or not done with previous allocations because we are in a representative democracy not a dictatorship where the FG can act autocratically towards a State (as OBJ used to do) rather than view States as partners in development. You should not be asking the Federal Government to withold State allocation or take on the role of school teacher punishing pupil.

You cannot ask one thief to punish another. Let the FG, if itself not full of thieve who like things as they are, push , as experts have advised, for complete transparency and a greater system of auditory checks and balances to ensure that allocations are judiciously utilised. You cannot suggest illegal behaviour as punishment for what you deem wrong. We are back to square one with that thinking. The States should get more money and GEJ, if he is willing and a solutions provider, should put in place measures that can effectively curb and discourage corruption.

I will want to agree that Amaechi maybe rated among the first 5 performing governor's in the country at present but i strongly believe his supposed performance it highly over-rated when you take stock of all projects on-going and completed in the state and put it side-by-side with the total revenue accrued to the state from federation account and internally generated sources.Truth is a good chunk of these funds running into hundreds of billions have been illegally diverted into private pockets.
I can understand that because most of the state in the country find it nearly impossible to generate other sources of revenue for themselves in the midst of mounting infrastructural needs compiled by years of deliberate neglect from past administrations occasioned by 'Mr. Corruption' as well as Federal governments out-right abdication of it's constitutional responsibilities to each states while it collects the 'lions' share of the 'Oil-Loot'.

On the one-hand there is obviously no justification for these states to call for more/increased revenue to them when the little as they claim to have cannot be properly accounted for by nearly 90% of them as is quite evident in the poor condition of state-roads,health,education and general infrastructure in their states.Most of these governors have keep billions of their state funds in their private pockets and call it 'security-votes',keep a few other billions of state funds in their wives and girl-friends accounts,calling them monthly road maintenance fees and it goes on like that,so to give them extra- billions every month instead of keeping these funds in a pool called SWF will not make them performers over-night.

On the second hand the Federal government is also a bigger conduit pipe for siphoning our funds in a 'Federal-way' only that the players here are the National Assembly members,the various ministries,government establishments,contractors,the executive friends and family.I agree that thief cannot control another thief but rather than share this money among the two factions better the money is left where even though we cannot dictate to them when or how to spend it but at-least we know how much is paid and removed per time and by who,otherwise how did we would not have known that Obj. & co. removed over $16b to finance the failed IPP or that Jonathan shared the remaining billions with these 'Oliver-Twist' governors and nothing to show for it.

ekt_bear:

Btw. . .

What guarantee is there as a governor that money you pay into this SWF account your state will ever get back?

I'd rather pay into a state SWF than a federal one.

What happens if I pay into a SWF and they use the money I paid in to build projects in Zamfara? Of what use is such a fund to me a citizen of Ekiti State, for example?

@ekt_bear, I think that's a brilliant suggestion if it could  be implemented.  In effect it means that part of the Sovereign Wealth Fund relating to infrastructure development  could be allocated to the state governments with a strong audit oversight and monitoring preferably in conjunction with an international organisation such as the World Bank, or the UNDP.   This would  mean that such spending by states  on things like roads, schools and hospitals under the arrangement would benefit and have a more direct impact on the common man , than spending by  the central government.

mbulela:

if you do it in your state they will say it is because he is not from your senatorial district.

Hehe, true  

Still, I think it is easier to fix problems in a state than at a national level.

More money getting to the states is a good thing, they employ far more people than the FG, at present, the FG gets over 50% of the budget while all states combined get just over 20%, what are they doing at the FG level that they have such a humongous allocation, let them give more to the states and use part of their allocation for sovereign wealth fund, all roads within a state should be state road, let the FG concern itself with interstate infrastructure such as road and rail.

hercules07:

More money getting to the states is a good thing, they employ far more people than the FG, at present, the FG gets over 50% of the budget while all states combined get just over 20%, what are they doing at the FG level that they have such a humongous allocation, let them give more to the states and use part of their allocation for sovereign wealth fund, all roads within a state should be state road, let the FG concern itself with interstate infrastructure such as road and rail.

If we actually start practising true federalism where states generate their funds as per being in control of the resources in their states and remitting a certain amount or percentage to the fed Govt then we can start to address salient issues.

The main issue is to be able to have a transparent and accountable structure in place backed by the constitution.

Sincere leaders are very hard to find in this country, or rather the corrupt ones who are ready to do anything to get to power will not allow a sincere and efficient individual to get there.

its a sad situation. we know the right thing to do but because the present arrangement suits these thieving lot, they will not change it.

hercules07:

More money getting to the states is a good thing, they employ far more people than the FG, at present, the FG gets over 50% of the budget while all states combined get just over 20%, what are they doing at the FG level that they have such a humongous allocation, let them give more to the states and use part of their allocation for sovereign wealth fund, all roads within a state should be state road, let the FG concern itself with interstate infrastructure such as road and rail.

Indeed. Corruption should never be an excuse for denying States of more money because less money going to the State simply means more money available to a Federal Government that is already very profligate, corrupt and a tragic demonstration of everything wrong with the over-concentration of power at the centre in a supposedly federal Structure.

The governors are damm right. You can not take over the funds of the states without taking over some of their responsibilities a la

coded guy:

If we actually start practising true federalism where states generate their funds as per being in control of the resources in their states and remitting a certain amount or percentage to the fed Govt then we can start to address salient issues.

The main issue is to be able to have a transparent and accountable structure in place backed by the constitution.

Sincere leaders are very hard to find in this country, or rather the corrupt ones who are ready to do anything to get to power will not allow a sincere and efficient individual to get there.

its a sad situation. we know the right thing to do but because the present arrangement suits these thieving lot, they will not change it.

That is indeed true. This is why I think we can only speak in support of what is right (i.e more money made available to the States) while hoping we will gain a genuine reformer , someday, who will realise that the need for a robust system , which will checks corruption and improves transparency, is paramount above everything else.

This is why I score GEJ low. Some of our problems cannot be resolved without fundamental reforms. GEJ does not seem interested or able to go there. The single tenure is an example. The argument is that it will decrease the 'monetisation' of Nigerian politics. To me , that is putting the Cart before the Horse in so far as successive PDP Presidents (Yar Adua and GEJ) chose to ignore Justice Uwais simple recommendation that severe punishment be put in place to check electoral malpractices i.e the imprisonment and automatic ban from politics for those guilty of electoral misconduct. We all know who the biggest election riggers are and what you said, i.e "the present arrangement suits these thieving lot", therefore applies to the single tenure analogy as it does to how we don't have effective check and balances , promoting accountability, because the FG likes things as they are.

Hmm, if this is the case, how about the FG step aside from the state natural resources and rather the states remit a portion of sales revenue to FG so it can fund other priorities?

It is at this point that OBJ woulda started using EFCC to threaten these Governors individually.

Governors act with complete impunity under GEJ since he enthroned them so long as they deliver delegate votes. Those delegate votes cost the country everything left in our ECA which was $14bln at the time.

Gbawe: The point is that more money should be going to the States. [b]It does not really matter what the Governors have done or not done with previous allocation[/b]s because we are in a representative democracy not a dictatorship where the FG can act autocratically towards a State (as OBJ used to do) rather than view States as partners in development. You should not be asking the Federal Government to withold State allocation or take on the role of school teacher punishing pupil.

We see where you are coming from, bruv; and its a sad stretch of road.
You really are beginning to expose the gory details of ACN's "morality."

www.nairaland.com/attachments/518316_IkuforijiNinjaThief_jpgd221a96311b1a89c01821b803d551a9c

Thieves.

Shouldn't these Governors be thinking more of generating higher internal revenue which can't be touched by the Fed Gov?. It's really sad, besides, were they sleeping when the law was been passed or are they saying the National Assembly do not have powers to make laws again?.

Beaf:

We see where you are coming from, bruv; and its a sad stretch of road.
You really are beginning to expose the gory details of ACN's "morality."

www.nairaland.com/attachments/518316_IkuforijiNinjaThief_jpgd221a96311b1a89c01821b803d551a9c

Thieves.

Dont mind Mr. Oxford. Gbawe sef don chop part of our money.

Thats why he thinks people should not be accountable, Ole Gbaweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

zoraro:

Shouldn't these Governors be thinking more of generating higher internal revenue which can't be touched by the Fed Gov?. It's really sad, besides, were they sleeping when the law was been passed or are they saying the National Assembly do not have powers to make laws again?.

You can only generate revenue only if you have the available economic backing to generate such revenue. For instance, a state with so much unemployment, how do u expect the state govt. generate revenue?

manny4life:


You can only generate revenue only if you have the available economic backing to generate such revenue. For instance, a state with so much unemployment, how do u expect the state govt. generate revenue?

If they stop looting the state treasury it will go a long way to alleviating the problem besides, a good economist will give 1001 ways they can generate revenue but little can be done if they are not willing to put an end to the needless waste that corruption is causing.

This American style Presidential democracy we are practicing is also obviously too expensive for the country to continue with.

^-- It is the FG where 70%+ of the budget goes to recurrent expenditure. I doubt that even the most mis-managed state in Nigeria is at a # like that (correct me if I am wrong!)

I hope it is not this same FG that you want to entrust with more funds?

What happened to about $30 billion ECA fund that was shared by GEJ and governors iimmediately after Yar 'duaal died? SWF is a good public policy,

Is this SWF not a duplication of the Excess Crude Accounts (ECA) we used to have.
We all know what the ECA was meant for and what it was used for in the long run. It was used to fund the third term agendas of the erstwhile administration, to coerce the Governors into accepting the candidature of our current 'fresh air' Jonathan.
Leaving such money under the discretion of FG to disburse as it pleases would achieve little or nothing in the long run.
Who knows what it will be used for this time; maybe garner support for our own Jonathan's 6 yr term.

No doubt Amechia with good heads like Fashola and Oshiomhole are spot on with this planned legal action. Goodness szke, Nigeria is a Federating Nation state and rightly so, it should be governed as one.

The idea od SWF itself is a good one but hey! Why think of eating a good omolette when your egg smells?

Instead of GEJ fighting for 6 year tenure enlongation, let him expend his political muscle through the NASS, restructure the revenue sharing formular while at the same pace, fashioning out how to make the LGA truly indepent and responsible to the locality.

Since the Yardu'a/GEJ's administration,hadly do you hear of LGA talking about tarring "trunk B" roads or even local modern markets, libraries etc compared to what one used to read during Obj's tenure!

manny4life:


You can only generate revenue only if you have the available economic backing to generate such revenue. For instance, a state with so much unemployment, how do u expect the state govt. generate revenue?

Cash and more cash does not connote economic growth in Economics(i wonder where you learned that from),when you are able to product something, i believe every state in the country has revenue generating capacity which have been discovered inclusive of Agriculture.Unemployment can equally not be solved by injection of more cash into a system the immediate solution is power generation which will drive the industries and large scale investment in Agriculture.I believe most of these states have enough capital to do so if only they will channel yearly wastage of billions in the name of 'security votes' and administrative costs.

Omo_Tier1:

The idea od SWF itself is a good one but hey! Why think of eating a good omolette when your egg smells?

Hehe

I hope you don't mind if I borrow bolded?