Chairman, Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) and Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, has appealed to the National Assembly to revisit the constitutional amendment and evolve a new revenue sharing formula for the federal and state governments. He made the appeal when the Senate Committee on Finance led by its chairman, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, visited him at the Government House, Port Harcourt.
Amaechi said the current revenue sharing formula is not in favour of the states and urged the National Assembly to hasten the amendment of the constitution to ensure equity in the sharing of the country’s resources.
He said; “It is important that we appeal to you that the Nigeria Governors’ Forum is waiting for the National Assembly on the constitutional amendment. Currently, the revenue formula is tilted towards the federal government and you are aware that governors are doing a lot in their states to improve on infrastructure which the federal government is not paying back. The power to address or amend the revenue sharing formula law is not in the hands of the Governors’ Forum, but in the hands of the National Assembly. If you amend the law, it would be a lot easier to change revenue formula from time to time.
“Currently, it is put in the hands of the president and I have not seen any president who has done anything about it. Former president OlusegunObasanjo did it by fiat and he couldn’t come to the National Assembly because he knew that there would be fair share for the states. The late president Umaru Musa Yar’Adua submitted the law and withdrew it. President Goodluck Jonathan has not done anything yet on that and we think the reason why it’s like that is because of the fact that the constitution says only the president on the advice of the Revenue Mobilisation Commission can seek change in the revenue formula. The current situation makes it difficult for the states to operate and we carry out federal projects and get no refund…” he said.
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