Only fiscal federalism can save Nigeria, says ex- speaker

Nosa Akenzua, Asaba

If Nigeria must break the current jinx of abysmal failure and under development, then the country must return to fiscal federalism, the former Speaker, Delta state House of Assembly, Emmanuel Okoro said on Sunday.

Okoro, who spoke to a group of journalists in Asaba, said that until the leadership of Nigeria takes the bold step to actualize fiscal federalism, all of country’s development efforts would end in failure.

According to him, the current pseudo-federalist structure in operation in Nigeria has created a culture of dependency in the federating states and it was high time the country’s elites took the right steps to amend the constitution in favour of fiscal federalism where federating states could harness their resources and pay taxes to the central government in Abuja.

“By my assessment, every state has enough resources to attain its development goals in a true fiscal federalist system and a critical part of the fiscal federalism must also be the devolution of power in favour of state and local governments.

“Fiscal federalism would end not only the culture of undue dependency of local and state governments on the federation account for financial sustenance, but also create and sustain the right culture of healthy competition among federating states as happened during the First Republic,” Okoro added.

The former speaker added that the dispensation of fiscal federalism should be augmented with the creation of state police to tackle the growing incidences of insecurity across the country.

He pointed out that state police formations given their localization and the benefits of adequate knowledge of the local environment would be better placed to respond to local security challenges before they escalate.