The Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, has advised the Federal Government to allow state governments to develop the natural resources within their domains in order to create the necessary infrastructure that will attract investors.
According to him, the Federal Government has a critical role to play in addressing the fundamental structural challenges undermining sustainable and inclusive economic growth in the various states.
Ambode spoke in Kaduna at the 4th Progressive Governance Lecture Series organised by Governors of the All Progressives Congress with the theme: ‘Building The Economy of States: Challenge of Developing Inclusively Sustainable Growth’.
He urged the Federal Government to encourage the state governments to harness their resources by unbundling the potential of each of the federating units.
The governor, who was reported in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Habib Aruna, to have spoken on the Lagos experience of de-emphasising reliance on oil, also said governors must be encouraged to tap into multiple streams of income within their domains, especially with the Federal Government allowing them to develop their potential.
Ambode lamented the situation whereby governors had power over the land in their domains but could not tap into the resources under the land.
Such practice, he said, must stop so that state governors could have power over both the land and resources underneath, thereby unbundling the potential of the states.
He said, “We need to start looking at some changes that we need to make within and among ourselves as a government, irrespective of whether it is federal, state or local government that will now unbundle the potential of each state, which is the cornerstone of the whole message we are talking about.
“There is a great need for all of us to decide once and for all to unbundle the potential of each state; take the comparative advantages of each state and fuse them together for the needs of our people.
“Governors are the owners of the land in their states but underneath the land and even inside the water, the Federal Government is structured in a way that it controls the potential. In a situation where the states are being spoon-fed, because I call the federation account more or less like spoon-feeding.
The Federal Government collects a total revenue on Value Added Tax and various revenues on behalf of all of us and make us to come to Abuja and more or less share it to us as peanuts, thereby not allowing us to reach our potential as competitive states individually.”
Alluding to the fact that insignia of progressivism in Nigeria should be first seen in the APC states, Governor Ambode said all critical actors must work together in the interest of the people.
He said, “There is just one economy in this country and so we need to first of all accept the fact that there is nothing like private sector as against the public sector; there is nothing like the Federal Government as against state governments.
“We are collaborating to drive the economy of this country. So, if that describes what Nigeria is and what it ought to be, we also want to say that government should be seen as an enabler, a platform that more or less creates the enabling environment for the public sector to thrive.”