Huge Revenue: It’s Time to Focus on Governors

With the astronomical rise in the revenue allocations to the states, it is really time for Nigerians to focus attention on state governors and insist on the judicious utilisation of these financial resources on critical projects that will improve living standards and reduce poverty.

Last week, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) released its Quarterly Report revealing the humongous revenues received by the federal, state, and local governments in the first and second quarters of 2024, yet Nigerians do not feel impacts of these funds.

From the NEITI report, the federal, state, and local governments received a total of N3.473 trillion in the second quarter of 2024, representing a 1.42 per cent increase, equivalent of N46.77 billion, from the N3.426 trillion disbursed in the first quarter of the year.

These figures summed up to N6.899 trillion for the two quarters, which far exceeded the N4.37 trillion shared by the three tiers of government in the first and second quarters of 2023 by over N2.5 trillion.

The report showed that of the N3.473 trillion disbursed in the second quarter, the federal government received N1.102 trillion, accounting for 33.35 per cent of the total.

The 36 states collectively received N1.337 trillion, representing 40.47 per cent, while the 774 local government councils were allocated N864.98 billion, or 26.18 per cent.

In addition, N169.26 billion was disbursed to nine oil-producing states as their derivation share from mineral revenues.

To confirm the NEITI’s report, last week, the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) said the three tiers of government shared a total of N1.203 trillion in August 2024 from a gross total of N2.278 trillion.

Vice President Kashim Shettima alluded to the increased allocations to the governors last week during the grand finale of the All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign rally in Benin City, Edo State where he stated that this period is the best time to be a governor in Nigeria.

It is sad that despite these huge revenues to the federal, state and local governments, there are still no good roads and other amenities to make life meaningful.

The only glaring evidence of these increased allocations is the very expensive lifestyles of the political leaders and their reckless spending.

Unfortunately, while the attention of many Nigerians is focused on the federal government, nobody demands accountability from the state governors and local government chairmen.

Nigerians should really begin to focus on these two tiers of government to know how they spend their allocations.