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| Former Minister of Finance |
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This came as the Governor of Niger State in the Jonathan era, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu, defended the inability of the last administration to save part of its income during the oil boom era for the rainy day, saying the government was handicapped by the 1999 Constitution.
This came as the Governor of Niger State in the Jonathan era, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu, defended the inability of the last administration to save part of its income during the oil boom era for the rainy day, saying the government was handicapped by the 1999 Constitution.
Minister of Finance and Coordinator of the Economy, under the Jonathan administration, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, had at a lecture at the George Washington University, Washington, USA, blamed the failure of the administration to save on zero political will, saying the administration differed seriously from the Obasanjo administration which saved over $22 billion for the country.
But former Governor Babangida Aliyu said on Sat- urday in Minna, that there was no Constitutional provision for saving of revenue generated by government. He made this known when he served as chairman at the second edition of the NDEDI Annual lecture series with the theme, ‘The Emergence of the Current Economic Realities: Expectations on the part of government and the private sector’.
He said, “What the Constitution provided for was for all amount generated to be put in the Federation account and shared among the three tiers of government. “The Constitution did not say we should save anything.
What the Constitution says is that we should generate and share. It will be illegal for us to say we want to save, the law does not allow it. “The 1999 Constitution did not think of any rainy day; the Constitution says all money generated should be put in a pool and shared to the three tiers of government”.
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Aliyu, however, said he and some of his colleagues were convinced at the time of the need to keep some money aside for eventualities, which brought about the establishment of the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF).
Accordingly, he said “Although, I was one of the governors that at the time opposed the idea and even went to court to challenge the scheme, l was still able to reserve over N2.56billion as at the time we left the government in 2015.” He, therefore, called for a review of the 1999 Constitution, to make it mandatory for all the tiers of government to save, no matter how little from their income.
“Such a constitutional provision will take care of the type of situation we have on our hands where not less than 26 States in the country cannot pay workers salaries.” Speaking on the fight against corruption, Dr. Aliyu said both the Constitution and the electoral amendments should be amended to provide legal framework for the war against corruption.
He said, by so doing, the campaign would not be terminated with or by any administration as successive governments would be bound by law to carry on the drive.
It would be recalled that former governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, during the presentation of his ‘End of Tenure Report’ to the people of the state, said his administration left N75 billion in the coffers for the incoming administration. Most of the other 34 governors left huge debts to their states
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