The Kano State Government has said that States and Local Governments in the country should benefit more from the Revenue Allocation Formula of the Federal Government to pave the way for meaningful development.
Alhaji Usman Alhaji, Secretary to the Kano State Government, made the plea on Monday during a presentation at the Northwest Public Hearing on the Review of the Current Vertical Revenue Allocation Formula held at the Asa Pyramid Hotel, Kaduna.
“Allocation formula in any country is made for the benefit, growth and development of the nation.
“We can not have a formula which does not allow the grassroots to develop,” he noted.
Alhaji said that the states and local governments are those at the grassroots saddled with handling all developmental issues concerning the people and the country.
“The Federal Government is currently holding the lion’s share whereas the states are burdened with so many responsibilities which ordinarily should have been that of the Federal government.
“For instance, security is fundamental because today, most of the states spend simply to keep their people alive and this is not good enough.
“Our position is that the common wealth is for the nation and it should be done in such a way that each individual can have some kind of relief and satisfaction in the way government is looking after him let alone local government and states.
“Not any one region for any parochial reason which will not be acceptable for peace and development of this nation should be considered more important than others,” he said.
Alhaji noted that Kano State, after wide consultations with stakeholders, recommended that instead of the 52 per cent of the Federal Government allocation, it should be 41 per cent while the States and Local Governments should have 34 and 24 per cent respectively.
“In Kano State, over 20 stakeholders made presentations and each of them decided on certain percentage. As such, we added all the submissions and came up with an average.
“We have also stated that because of the unique nature of Kano State, 1 per cent allocation should be made to Kano State because if you develop Kano, you are developing Nigeria because as it is today Kano State has over five million people comprising people from different tribes in this country coexisting in large number.
“I think there should be a change in the allocation so that the states and local governments can have more,” Alhaji said. (NAN)
