By Uzor Odigbo
A Yoruba Leadership Forum (Yoruba Ronu) led by its President, Akin Malaolu, has advised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to withhold any financial aid to the state governors for economic growth
Following the windfall of about two trillion naira accrued from the removal of fuel subsidy and scrapping of free tuition fees amongst other taxes, Malaolu said, “We have seen the economic recovery path that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu wishes to follow which is Public Sector Driven. This is tantamount to putting more money in the hands of State Agents and this economic development approach is very risky.
According to him, “The risk involved are as follows; that over the years, Governors and local council Chairmen have not shown any desire to utilise resources for developmental purposes, insecurity is still pervasive, low understanding of what democracy is all about is evident.
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In a press release made available to TheNiche, he said, “Abuses are common, unfinished project litters every State of the federation. A case in point is Kano State wherein out of its eighteen million population of people, the number of industries is fifty- eight, the number of mosques is three hundred and fifty thousand while roaming children between the ages of five years and fifteen years are in the population of three million plus.”
These scenarios can be representative of almost all of the Northern States excluding only Kwara which has had an efficient Government in the last four years.
Akin Malaolu insisted that the scenarios have shown from various statistics negative economic development and growth in almost all the States of the federation.
“We therefore do not believe that growth and development will come through the present approach of putting more money in the hands of State Agents and the expected delivery would not show up. Leakages are therefore going to erode any Government desires to encourage growth Nationwide.
“The pledge made by the Chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State that they will ensure effective utilisation of extra funds, following removal of fuel subsidy should not be taken seriously.
“The interim Tinubu administration though also unpopular, should exercise utmost caution, look back to its starting point from May 29th and restore the following actions he took; restore subsidy on petrol, reduce taxes, restore tuition fees in tertiary education and give the naira some breather. Subjecting Nigerians to a hundred per cent market forces will erode confidence at the small and medium enterprises level and closures of many manufacturing companies may become inevitable sooner than later. Nigeria must manufacture to export and earn dollars. We must not do otherwise because Nigeria should be the hub of crude processing in West Africa. How can we accept that no public refinery is functional and taxing people to death to give more funds to discredited state actors.”