Governors in Nigeria have come under severe scrutiny as citizens demand utmost accountability from them, stressing that the bulk of the blame must go the subnational level for inefficiencies, poor policy design, corruption, incompetences, and general lack of vision.
This demand is coming on the heels of humongous funds released to that tier of government under the Nigerian federal structure in the preceding month of February.
The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), according to reports by NBS, National Bureau of Statistics has disbursed a total sum of ₦2.07 trillion to the Federal Government, States and Local Government Councils, (LGCs) for the Month of February 2024.
Indeed, this development has prompted many citizens and stakeholders to begin to ask questions about transparency while demanding accountability and good governance.” Everyone is shouting Tinubu, what has your governor done with the allocation to your state,?” One analyst queried.
The amount disbursed comprised: ₦1.15 trillion recorded from the Statutory Account ₦479.03 billion from Exchange Gain, ₦16.59 million from Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL), and ₦420.73 billion from Value Added Tax.
The allocations to the three tiers of government for November 2023 were: Federal Government with a total of ₦407.27 billion, States with a total of ₦379.41 billion, and Local Governments with a total of ₦278.04 billion.
The sum of ₦85.10 billion was shared among the oil-producing states from the 13% derivation fund.
The revenue generating agencies comprising Nigeria Customs Service (NCS),
Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) received ₦16.27 billion, ₦43.35 billion, and ₦18.68 billion respectively; as cost of revenue collections.
Further breakdown of revenue allocation distribution to the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) revealed that: ₦279.06 billion was disbursed to the FGN consolidated revenue account, ₦6.57 billion was received as a share of derivation and ecology, ₦3.29 billion as stabilization fund, ₦11.04 billion for the development of natural resources, and ₦10.37 billion to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)- Abuja.
