Restructuring the federal allocation formula is the only way to stem labour unrest in Nigeria, the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola has said.Mr Fashola said this while addressing members of the Nigerian Labour Congress yesterday at the commemoration of Workers’ Day. He also said some policies of the federal government must be amended as they breach the constitutional procedure.
Every May 1st is designated Workers’Day and member organisations of the Labour Congress had gathered, as usual, at Onikan Stadium yesterday to mark the day,under the theme, “Growing the national economy for job creation and people’s welfare.”
“In order that the newly approved minimum wage to be effective and sustained and for the states and local governments to be able to function and provide basic social services, the adoption and implementation of the recommendation to amend the revenue allocation formula is [a] precondition that will help us stem any labour crises,” he said, adding that “not all states will be able to pay the new wage structure unless there is an urgent amendment of the country’s revenue allocation formula that gives more money to the state and local governments.”
Outdated laws Mr Fashola, for some years, has been very vocal about the need to amend the formula for sharing revenues from the federation account.
He said, the revenue allocation formula, like many other laws in the country, is out-dated in the recent political awakening that has pushed people to demand more services from their government.
He argued that the state governors are at the receiving end of this political agitation as the federal government is far and too removed from them.
“A situation in which the Federal Government currently takes as much as 52.68 per cent of the centrally-collected revenues in the federation Account, leaving the states and local government with 26.72 and 20.60 per cent respectively is not acceptable,” he said, adding that his administration has had to augment local governments’ payroll in order to avert an imminent crisis.
He argued that since public agencies like the Nigerian Port Authority, Nigerian Airways Limited, Nigeria National Shipping Line, Ajaokuta Steel Company, National Insurance Corporation of Nigeria, National Fertilizer
Company of Nigeria, Nigerian Aviation Handling Company, Nigerian Sugar Company among others have all been privatised, there is no meritorious reason for the federal government to still retain more than 50 percent of the country’s revenue.
Mr Fashola also called for strict adherence to constitutional provision by receiving government agencies like the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, the Nigeria Customs Services, Federal Inland Revenue Services among others, which he said operates “a policy not backed by the law that allows them defray their operational expenses for revenues collected on behalf of the federation rather than being paid from the federation account”.
“This is a clear violation of section 162, subsection 1 of the constitution”, he said, “The correct and lawful practice is that the operations of these agencies of the federal government must be funded by the federal government from its own budgeted share of the federation account and not by any deduction at source as appears to have been the case.”
Better allocation for states
While proposing that states’ share of national revenue be increased to 42 per cent as recommended by a committee setup by the Governors’ Forum, on which he served as the chairman, Mr Fashola called for an organised labour movement to “demand a more development focused budget that allows us to invest at least 50 per cent of state and federal government budgets in capital projects.”
In his remark, State Chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Akeem Kazeem, while condemning the recent post-electoral violence that claimed the lives of some youth corps members, said only policies specifically targeted at the working class can lift Nigeria out of the mire of ethnic and religious violence.
He said “the cowardly and dastardly act again has brought to the fore the need for the trade unions and labour movements to take up the driver’s seat in our search for nationhood”.
On his part, the State Acting Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Idowu Adelakun urged the Lagos state government to order the immediate payment of gratuity of the thirty-two workers of the
Lagos State Sports Council who retired between 2005 and 2008 because it is the only reward they have for their long service year.
