Nigeria should make all levels of government functional –Agbakoba

Dr Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, has said that it is time to devolve powers to all three governments in Nigeria to promote efficiency and development.

He made the call in a press statement made available to Business247 News on Monday by his Media Executive, Mr Niyi Odunmorayo.

According to him, “As we all know, politically, Nigeria is overcentralized. Everything is decided in Abuja to the great detriment of National development. This reality explains why the Tax Reform bill has run into opposition. The Tax reform bill is good from a revenue point. More money is good especially as the tax reform bill is focused on corporate entities and the upper class super rich. In fact, the bill is a massive incentive to the working class. But the challenge is that the distribution formula is said not favour Northern Nigeria.

“Northern Nigeria may have a reasonably arguable case. We have always distributed revenue with clear principles. So, the North asks why the Revenue sharing formula in the proposed Tax Reform bill is not the same as that for sharing oil revenue. This is a huge problem! We will continue to grapple with how to distribute revenue equitably unless and until Nigeria politically devolves revenue collection to the states which implies massive devolution of powers from the centre. The North for example has capacity to generate massive revenue from mechanization of Agriculture, but it has not, as there are no strong incentives.

“My honest opinion is that it is more than past time to devolve political and economic power from Federal to state and also from State to local government. This is the only way we will grow the Economy from sharing Revenue to generating Revenue. I strongly believe consumption tax goes to states where the revenue is generated. But the North says that to change the system in the middle of the game is unfair.

“This needs careful review. I cannot understand why the Federal government is concerned with controlling marriage and drivers’ licenses or basic primary and secondary education, to the detriment of even distribution of political power. When one looks at the 98 items of power, it is plain that we, as a matter of first principles, need to distribute power more evenly and effectively and efficiently across the three arms of Government. This is also applicable to the Judiciary that is, by far the strongest in terms of Jurisdiction, in the world. The Supreme Court is slow because it exercises far too much local Jurisdiction, best suited at local and state Government level. I believe the most pressing matter in Nigeria is Governance, relating to redistribution of power across the three levels of Government, so that each level exercises assigned power in the most efficient and effective manner. In this way Revenue Sharing will switch to Revenue generation for development”.