Former Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar said he would relinquish more power to states if elected president next year. Abubakar, 71, said the current revenue-sharing formula doesn’t give enough to states to invest and be held accountable by their residents.
“The federal government is being accused of everything even when it’s not supposed to be its area of responsibility,” Abubakar said Wednesday at a conference in London. “I want to be able to resolve that so citizens can hold their local leaders accountable for maladministration.” He spoke on the importance of strengthening states’ economic management system at London’s Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House).
Abubakar, who used the opportunity to harp on some of his economic programmes and policies as a presidential candidate, said his government will streamline the operations of the Sovereign Wealth Fund, the Excess Crude Account and the Stabilisation Account which is currently embedded in the Revenue Allocation Formula for more effective stabilisation outcome.
“I will extend railways to connect workers to jobs, suppliers to buyers, students to universities, and parents to their children in every major city in every state,” the presidential aspirant told the audience. Abubakar, a member of the main opposition People’s Democratic Party, announced his intention to vie for leadership of Africa’s biggest oil producer in March, setting himself up as a candidate against President Muhammadu Buhari, who will seek a second term.
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