Lagos
State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode on Thursday said the Federal Government
has a critical role to play in addressing the fundamental structural challenges
undermining sustainable and inclusive economic growth in the states of the
federation, among which is unbundling the potentials of each of the federating
units.
Speaking
in Kaduna at the 4th Progressive Governance Lecture Series organized by
Governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with the theme: "Building
The Economy of States: Challenge of Developing Inclusively Sustainable
Growth," Governor Ambode said the Federal Government must allow the
states to develop the natural resources within their domain and create
the necessary infrastructure that would attract investors.
Governor
Ambode, who spoke on the Lagos experience of de-emphasizing reliance on oil,
said Governors must also be encouraged to tap into multiple streams of income
within their domain, especially with the Federal Government allowing the states
to develop their potentials.
The
Governor lamented the situation whereby Governors have power over the land in
their domain but cannot tap into the resources under the land and even the
water, saying that such must stop so that Governors can have power over both
the land and resources underneath, thereby unbundling the potentials of the
states.
"We
need to start looking at some changes that we need to make within and among ourselves
as a government irrespective of whether it is federal, state or local
government - that will now unbundle the potentials of each state which is the
cornerstone of the whole message we are talking about.
"There
is the need for all of us to decide once and for all to unbundle the potentials
of each state; take the comparative advantages of each state and fuse them
together for the needs of our people.
"Governors
are the owners of the land in their states but underneath the land and even
inside the water, the Federal Government is structured in a way that it
controls those potentials. In a situation where the states are being spoon-fed,
because I call the federation account more or less like spoon-feeding. The
federal government collects total revenue on Value Added Tax (VAT) and various
revenues on behalf of all of us and make us to come to Abuja and more or less
share it to us as peanuts thereby not allowing us to reach our potentials as
competitive states individually," the Governor said.
While
alluding to the fact that insignia of progressivism in Nigeria should be first
seen in the APC states, Governor Ambode said all critical actors must work
together in the common interest of the people.
He
said: "There is just one economy in this country and so we need to first
of all accept the fact that there is nothing like private sector as against
public sector; there is nothing like Federal Government as against State
Government. We are collaborating together to drive the economy of this country.
So if that describes what Nigeria is and what it ought to be, we also want to
say that government should be seen as an enabler; a platform that more or less
creates the enabling environment for the private sector to thrive.
"If
we see ourselves as messengers to allow enabling environment to thrive, that
means that whatever it is that we are doing, we must do it in such a way that
will allow that enabling environment so that commerce, industry and our people
can feel that sense of inclusion and that is why all of us are here. We are
making progress because we are there because of our people and if we are there
because of our people, it is just those basic little things that our people
need that we should go ahead and address.
"We
all must be in one set and whatever that we are doing in terms of policy; what
it is that we are doing in terms of what I now refer to as re-arrangement, we
should now focus on people and then we should be people-friendly. And that is
the only way we can create that inclusive growth," he said.
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Politics