Some leaders of Afenifere, the Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, have berated a national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, over his call for the review of the country’s revenue allocation formula.
The Afenifere leaders, Chief Ayo Adebanjo; and the National Publicity Secretary, Yinka Odumakin, in separate interviews on Saturday, said the APC chief must do beyond talking.
The APC national leader had, on Saturday, made the call for the review of the country’s “cumbersome revenue formula,” adding that the governors of the South-West region particularly must be united in boosting their internally generated revenues.
Tinubu, while speaking at the inauguration of the Ondo State Revenue House, in Akure, noted that such a step would help to ameliorate unemployment and hunger experienced by the people.
He said, “The cumbersome revenue formula of Nigeria as of today needs to be reviewed. If the fiscal element of our Nigerian economy is strictly well supervised, we can turn our population to prosperity, instead of our liability. You can equally use the synergy with the Oodua Investment to collaborate not only on Amotekun syndrome. Amotekun is a creation of necessity for hoodlums caused by unemployment, frustration and hunger.
“If everybody is engaged, Amotekun will be a pet. If you work with Oodua Investment, look at the area of collaboration. I know Ondo for (its) great potential for gas, energy and tourism to feed this country.”
In his remarks, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu said the state was generating between N600m and N700m on a monthly basis.
“We were able to generate N1.5bn on a monthly basis in 2018,” the governor said.
However, Adebanjo argued that rather than making a call, Tinubu should ensure that the APC-led Federal Government fulfilled its campaign promises to Nigeria, including restructuring,.
He said, “The statement may not be more than a campaign slogan for Tinubu. He knows that all these issues about revenue generation and sharing are contained in restructuring. If he is convinced about restructuring, then he should press for it now. Restructuring was part of the APC campaign promises; what have they done about it?
“He should join the clamour for the restructuring of this country. We are fed up with the play on words.”
Also, Odumakin said, “The views he (Tinubu) has made public now, he should canvass with those at the helms of affairs in the country. More resources should go to the federating units. We should not talk so much about revenue sharing but revenue generation.
“Every section of the country must be revenue-generating. We have solid minerals even in the North, where Zamfara is now taking the lead at the moment. There will always be contentions when we talk about sharing but Nigeria should focus more on generation.”
NO SERIOUS YORUBA MAN TAKES TINUBU SERIOUSLY
After shamelessly renaging on all the APC campaign promises, the national leader of the party, Bola Tinubu, now cuts the picture of a sinking man trying hard to clutch at any conceivable straw. But the most dangerous and forlorn aspiration of his is the 2023 presidency, for which he has been rehashing his old trite tactics of playing to the gallery – by mouthing something like reviewing revenue sharing formula. But he forgot that his people, the YORUBA, are more savvy than he can give them credit for. The Southwest and most other parts of Nigeria are today more interested in restructuring than any talk of change or review of revenue formula.
Restructuting will guarantee both revenue sharing and generation. Tinubu should champion the restructuring and make it work NOW, before any other thing.
Enough of the shenanigans!