A former governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, has called for a review of the 1999 Constitution to make it mandatory for all the tiers of government to save from their revenue.
He further said his administration was unable to save for the rainy day because it was handicapped by the 1999 Constitution.
He made the remarks in Minna, Niger state Capital on Saturday at the second edition of the NDEDI Annual lecture series which had as its theme “The Emergence of the Current Economic Realities : Expectations on the part of government and the private sector.”
He said, “Such a constitutional provision will take care of the type of situation we have on our hands where about 26 states in the country cannot pay workers’ salaries. What the constitution provided for was for all amounts generated to be put in the federation account and shared between the three tiers of government.
“The constitution did not say we should save anything; what the constitution said is that we should generate and share. It will be illegal for us to say we want to save, the law does not allow it.
“The 1999 Constitution did not think of any rainy day; it says all money generated should be put in a pool and shared, to the three tiers of government.”
However, Aliyu said he and some of his colleagues were convinced of the need to keep some money aside for the future, which brought about the establishment of the Sovereign Wealth Fund.
