Industrialist charges FG to give resource exploitation deadline to states

An industrialist, Chief Felix Okonti, has advised the Federal Government to give states a five-year deadline to develop their resources to set Nigeria on course for economic growth.

Okonti, who is Managing Director of Prime Gold Fertiliser and Chemical Industries, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos.

He said there was need for the Federal Government to introduce a development plan where percentages of monthly allocations to states should gradually be removed.

The industrialist decried the current system where states and Local Governments relied on monthly revenue allocations from the centre, instead of contributing to it.

Okonti argued that there was corruption in administration of the joint accounts of local and State Governments because state governors manipulated the accounts to suit their selfish personal interests.

``Nigeria cannot exist for more than another 25 years economically, if we continue running the federation of Nigeria in this model where at the end of the month Local Governments, State Governments and federal agencies go caps in hand to collect revenue from the centre.

``We should stop running this rental economy, Local Governments are not exploring all their sources of revenue generation because they are sure of allocation at the end of the month.

``We would totally go bankrupt in 25 years if we continue like this except there is serious structural reform.

``What I expect this government to do is to give notice of five years to all states and Local Governments that at the end of the period no single kobo would come to them as revenue.

``Government should start phasing out the revenue from a year’s notice and keep reducing the percentage till it gets to zero.

``State governors should all go back to their states to resourcefully find out how to run their units by exploring all their resources,’’ he said.

The industrialist, who is also the Managing Director of Liz Konti Ranch Ltd., said that annual deductions accruing from the percentages of deductions from states should be put in a sovereign wealth fund.

He explained that the Federal Government could lend funds from the sovereign wealth fund to states for capital projects at the expiration of the notices in five years.

Okonti, the Managing Director of Mid-Ocean Shipping Company Ltd., also called on the Federal Government to liberalise the oil sector to end the oligarchy in the sector.
(NAN)