The Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF, has taken step to shore up the declining revenue facing most states in the country by organizing a national peer learning workshop for state governors and commissioners on how to improve their Internally Generated Revenue, IGR.
Speaking at a two-day workshop in Abuja yesterday, the governors blamed leakages in the system to the frustration encountered by their colleagues in fulfilling their campaign promises, and asserted that the solution to the present financial crunch facing the nation lies in the diversification of the economy.
In his opening remarks, the NGF Chairman, Governor Abdul’aziz Yari of Zamfara State stressed that, “We must ensure that we are competitive in the way we diversify our economies, and ensure that the private sector plays a stronger role going forward.
“This event should guide our states to share practical and effective experiences for boosting revenue generation and also provide strategies to kick-start the process,” he stated.
Yari, who was represented by Governor Umar Ganduje of Kano State, said Nigeria’s economic challenges could be overcome when the leaders make conscious efforts “to do the right thing at the right time.”
According to him, the IGR peer learning event was coming at a time when the governors were expected to live up to the expectations of the electorate, and charged the attendees to “mobilise the potential interaction of the resources” to meet the revenue gaps.
The Zamfara Governor disclosed that NGF members have agreed to adopt the findings of the summit as an important action plan for ensuring a more robust internally generated revenue base for states.
“We will also expect periodic briefings from our secretariat on the status of these plans and how our states have been able to implement them,” he added.
On his part, the Imo State governor, Owelle Rochas Okoracha attributed the leakages in the system to the frustration the governors face in meeting their campaign promises and advised his colleagues to look inward and explore the option of developing agriculture and other God-given natural resources.
His words, “We have enough resources to run the states but there are so much leakages.
“There are cultural challenges, no nation can grow above its cultural resources. Culture has a lot to do in our politics and economy. Let us develop our land and be less oil dependant,” Okorocha advised.
Okorocha, who is the Chairman of the Progressives Governors’ Forum, said, “Now that things have gone the way they have gone and are going the way they are going in this country, we have no other option than to attempt for the very first time to develop properly the resources of our land, with emphasis on agriculture, which hitherto has given us over 70 per cent opportunity of employment and has been largely responsible for our foreign exchange.”
Comments