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From Aniekan Aniekan, Calabar
A former acting national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ntufam Hilliard Eta, has described state governors as Nigeria’s greatest problem.
He said rather than being creative, governors prefer to run 24/7 to Abuja to look for money.
“Governors should be creative. They should stop sitting and running 24/7 to Abuja every month to get allocation.
“This allocation mentality has completely destroyed Nigeria. About 50 percent of our patrimony is within the states and the governors are the greatest problem, all the 36 of them.
“The governors spend so much time and energy attempting to increase their allocation instead of increasing their internally generated revenues.
“Given the ongoing reforms, the governors have been swallowed with money but look at the states, is the money reflecting in the lives of the people?
“Take the South South states for instance, since 2002, they have been receiving derivation and one would have expected them to use the money to create an economy beyond oil but that is not the case.
“Nigerians should look at their governors and question them on the use of these funds,” he said in an interview in Calabar, Cross River State.
On the ongoing debate on tax reforms, he said it would be scandalous to throw away the tax bills.
He said the bills create clarity for the country’s taxes as businesses would now have fewer taxes to pay, and tax evasion, which is a culture, would be properly addressed.
He added that pitting one section of the country against another would not be for the overall benefit of the country.
