The Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala has said that many State governments in Nigeria cannot give a judicious account on how allocations released by the Federal Government to them is utilized.
She said although many of the States receive allocations that are as big as the annual budget of some neighbouring countries, none of them could point to meaningful development in their domain.
She made the disclosure whilst speaking at Babcock University’s convocation lecture at Ilishan-Remo, Ogun.
She called on Nigerians to challenge the State governments more on what they are using the funds to accomplish.
Okonjo-Iweala said, “Clearly, the Federal Government cannot do it alone; we need the private sector to work with us and we have reached out to them in transforming Nigeria. But, in addition to that, we should ask ourselves what is the role of the state and local governments in supporting our transformation.
“A lot of attention is turned on the Federal Government. So, we also need to ask what our states and local governments do with the resources they get.”
She added, “We need to ask more questions; poverty eradication and building of infrastructure are not only by the Federal Government. In 2013, the top 10 allocations were going to the following states: Akwa Ibom, N260bn; Rivers, N220bn; Delta N209bn; Bayelsa, N173bn; Lagos, N168bn; Kano, N140bn; Katsina, N103bn; Oyo, N100bn; Kaduna N97bn; and Borno at number 10 with N94bn.
“These were the allocations all these states got last year. The question is what did they do with the money?”
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