Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio has said that Nigeria is not truly running a federal system of government because there is too much power in the centre.
Akpabio urged the incoming administration of the President-Elect, Mohammadu Buhari to support the 8th National Assembly to reduce the power of the federal government so as to allow the state governments to have more power.
Akpabio said this during a programme on Channels TV titled, View from the Top, on Monday.
He said “The present revenue sharing formula should be reviewed in such a way that the Federal Government does not take too much money and then the state governments that have much to do, receive little or nothing and end up becoming salary paying centres instead of centres of development. We must also make the Federal Government less attractive.
“Some of the responsibilities on the exclusive list should be removed. If we are a true federal state, like Australia, we should allow the state governments to partner with the private sectors from outside the country.
“It is wrong for the Federal Government to borrow N50bn and then give an order that any state government that wants to borrow N200m has to take permission from the Minister of Finance. That is not a federation. That is a unitary government. Let’s not pretend that we are running a federal system of government, we are running a unitary government.
“I am happy that somebody like Muhammadu Buhari is coming to power. He is not coming to make money but to make a name for himself and deliver good governance. The incoming administration must support the lawmakers to reduce the powers of the Federal Government. The PDP and the APC must collectively come together to reduce the weight on the Federal Government.”