A former Health Minister, Prof Isaac Adewole, has advocated fiscal federalism where states get funds commensurate to what they bring into the federation account.
Adewole, a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, was a guest on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television on Friday.
Adewole urged governors to allow the local government areas to function as an independent tier of government.
He backed the persistent call for restructuring and resource control by sub-nationals. “I am an apostle of fiscal and physical federalism,” he said.
He added that though it was late for a return to regionalism, states should be allowed to grow on their own and based on the resources within their domains.
Specifically, the former minister said states that prohibit the sale of alcoholic drinks should not get out of the Value Added Tax (VAT) on beer through the federation account.
He said, “We need to look at how we share the resources of this country. If you have a law that prevents you from selling alcohol, that law should also prevent you from sharing money from alcohol. We should be honest with ourselves. States that prohibit the sale of alcohol should not share out of VAT from alcohol. Straight forward.
“Then we should also ask each state what they are bringing to the table. A situation where states only share money from oil is absurd and that is why we are where we are today because the other states are not bringing anything to the table.
“What is happening to our gold, bitumen, lithium? The resources from all of these, where are they? The only thing we know is oil money.”