ActionAid Nigeria has called on government to embrace fiscal federalism to enable Nigeria break the vicious cycle of poverty ravaging the nation.
A press release issued by the General Assembly Members of ActionAid Nigeria, after a virtual meeting to review the State of the Nation on Saturday, expressed concerns over the public fiscal deficit, financed mostly by domestic and foreign borrowings.
The press release signed by Yusuf Ogwuzebe, said the public fiscal deficit has widened high debt service payments, estimated at more than half of federally collected revenues which poses a major fiscal risk to Nigeria’s economy.
“Rising public debt, unemployment, inflation, and high cost of living require the immediate embracing of fiscal federalism in absolute terms. It will eliminate the wholesale dependence on oil which makes Nigeria a monolithic economy.
“Adopting the principles of fiscal federalism will be a practical approach to solving the challenges governments at all levels face today, such as the generation and equitable distribution of income, efficient and effective allocation of resources, and economic stability. Revenue drive and allocation of resources can be done effectively by states and local governments with strong measures to curtail graft and corruption,” he said
The general assembly members of ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) reviewed the current security challenges in the country.
It was observed that Nigeria is faced with an unprecedented wave of different but overlapping security crises, ranging from kidnapping to extremist insurgencies.
“Almost every corner of the country has been hit by violence and crime. The growing insecurity has been closely linked to the high rate of poverty in the country.
“Cracking the nation’s current security challenges also requires increasing the manpower and welfare of all security agencies and equipping them with modern combat equipment, skills, and training.
“The government must renew our partnership with neighboring countries to enhance intelligence exchange and information sharing that would help in quelling the insurgency and other sundry crimes.
“The state-of-the-art combat Tucano and Alpha jets newly acquired must be deployed immediately to help in further neutralizing the criminal elements with precision and bring the protracted insurgency to an end. Contemporary hi-tech security management networking as adopted by advanced countries of the world should be embraced.”
AAN called for urgent amendment of the Nigerian constitution to allow states set up their various police outfits by taking the police off the exclusive legislative list and including same in the concurrent list.
This, it posits, will enhance the effectiveness of the Nigerian police in tackling insecurity in the country.
