The Chief Revenue Consultant to CSDC Consulting Enterprise Solutions and Tree Four Consult,Prof. Muritala Awodun, speaking during an interview, laments over the revenue challenges facing the 36 sates of Nigeria.
Speaking during an interview, he said it was not that these other states cannot generate sufficient IGR but because they are solely dependent on the money that comes from the Federal sources, “which come with little or no effort and because it is barely adequate for them to pay salaries and do some other things, they tend to be contented with that status, adding that what if that federal allocations stop today, how are those other states going to survive?”
Awodun, who is Professor of Business and Entrepreneurship, and Director, Centre for Enterprise and Human Capital Development, Crown-Hill University, Eiyenkorin, Kwara State, said all the states of the federation and FCT can be self-sustaining if they develop and maximise their resources and IGR collection.
He, however, decried that none of the 36 states in Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) Abuja, have reached their full potential in internally generated revenue collection.
If each state decides that for every administration that comes onboard, one particular form of mineral resource of their state will be concentrated upon such that industries will be built around them, or concentrate on one form of their agriculture potential and magnified them on a large scale, such states will not be the same again after that particular administration. The situation is that most states are not making any significant effort to develop in Nigeria, as they always find a ready excuse every now and then to pass the buck.
“Every state in Nigeria has one form of resource or the other that can actually make that state to survive, but we are not looking at such a direction because we have a source of revenue that is like free money. My take is that we should not wait until the situation becomes too late, as the present state of affairs is not sustainable for too long and the warning signals are already out there.”
