Fashola congratulates 57 ACN chairman over victory at polls

*Canvass upward  review of revenue 
 formula for states, local councils 

Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola yesterday felicitate with the 57 chairmen and councilors of the Action Congress of Nigeria(ACN) that emerged victorious at the polls. He however noted that beyond victory , the Federal Government needed to urgently review the revenue formula to allow the third tier of government access more funds to frontally tackle the statutory challenge of primary health care and education to the people at the grassroots.
Fashola explained that it might not be out of place to lay the claims of lack of performance at the feet of local council bosses considering that the paltry resources at their disposal as opposed to the Federal Government which takes 52 per cent of the revenues from the Federation Account with sufficient performance to match it.
Speaking in an interview at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos on his return from Abuja from the emergency Governors' Forum meeting, Fashola explained that given the current revenue allocation formula it would be difficult  to sustain the system which is skewed against states and local government councils.
Fashola said : "I want to first congratulate the Action Congress of Nigeria my party and all of the council chairmen and the councilors for the success at the polls, I also congratulate candidates of other parties who were successful in the polls.
"But let me say that we have a flawed constitution and let me also say that given the flaws in the constitution some of the ways that we can invigorate the local government  to improve service delivery is first to focus critically on the responsibilities that we have given them and I will choose two, primary health care and primary education." "You know we continue to try in a sense swimming against the tide because we cannot afford not those two critical services health and education, now when you look at a local government that is saddled with salary obligations beyond what its capacity can deal with where is the money then to give service, now if you have a local government structure and a federation revenue allocation formula where the national government keeps 52 per cent  of the revenues the 36 states shares 26 per cent  and the local government  20 per cent .
"They are the fulcrum of hundred and seventy four and more of them are left to share just 20 per cent , just think of it. Now which is the government that is closest and most impact full  to the people but sadly it is the government that has the least revenue, now don’t take my word for it I think it is time to ask all of you journalist, do some investigations don’t accept what we say do some investigations seek also the opinion of economics and experts that can this kind of system work don’t accept what we say because we are involved do some independent validation and investigations and on the basis of that express your opinion for Nigerians to hear this system is not sustainable that is the truth".
We cannot afford not to swim but it will be nice to swim with the tide behind us that really is the problem because every time that there is a governmental failure let us look at the risk impact if you keep 52 per cent  once there is a failure at that level it is a 52 per cent  failure so whether you now aggregate the states and the local government together you can only get a 46 per cent success at the very best."
He further said : "Now if this country’s economic was working at 52 per cent  we won’t be agonizing the way that we are agonizing but those are issues that I think will provoke you to deeper thinking and analyses not just what we governors are saying or what we elected representatives are saying but what really is the fundamental logic in this skewed  agreement but having said that I believe that the governors forum has expressed his position yesterday.
And I align myself in that position again this is part of the problem that we have, we have an appropriation law that prescribe a certain amount of monies roughly over N240billion for the year for subsidies and by September we have exceeded the approved amount by an additional N1.2trillion, now that is monies that should have gone into the federation account and that should have constituted part of the assets  of each of the 36 states and the local government it has gone without lawful authorities to spend it without consultation with the stakeholders that is the federation that we are dealing with."