Godswill Akpabio, the outgoing Governor of Akwa Ibom State, has asked the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, to support the 8th National Assembly in reducing the powers of the Federal Government and allow the state governments to have more power.
The governor, who claimed that Nigeria was operating a unitary state because of the enormous powers of the Federal Government, identified complacency as the reason the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, failed at the last general elections, noting that the party realised too late that the All Progressives Congress had captured the South-West.
He said it was unfortunate that the state governors had to seek the permission of the Federal Government before approaching the bond market for loans to undertake capital projects even though their states have the capabilities to pay back.
The senator-elect said that “the present revenue sharing formula should be reviewed in such a way that the FG does not take too much money and then the state governments that have much to do, receive little or nothing and end up becoming salary paying centres instead of centres of development.
“We must also make the Federal Government less attractive, some of the responsibilities on the exclusive list should be removed. If we are a true federal state, like Australia, we should allow the state governments to partner with the private sectors from outside the country.”
He added that “It is wrong for the Federal Government to borrow N50bn and then give an order that any state government that wants to borrow N200m has to take permission from the Minister of Finance. That is not a federation. That is a unitary government. Let’s not pretend that we are running a federal system of government, we are running a unitary government.”
Akpabio expressed confidence in the ability of Buhari to deliver good governance, saying, “I am happy that somebody like Muhammadu Buhari is coming to power. He is not coming to make money but to make a name for himself and deliver good governance. The incoming administration must support the lawmakers to reduce the powers of the Federal Government, the PDP and the APC must collectively come together to reduce the weight on the Federal Government.”
Speaking on his achievements in office, he claimed that he is the only governor in the country who has been able to record 20 per cent in recurrent budgetary expenditure and then 80 per cent capital expenditure.
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