Akeredolu tells FG to allow states determine salaries

Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has decried the current practice of fixing salaries and allowances of public officials by the Federal Government (FG) to reflect uniformity across the nation. 

The Chairman of the Southern Nigeria Governors’ Forum said the practice is unacceptable in a polity that prides itself as federal.

Akeredolu spoke on Wednesday at the Zonal Public Hearing on the Review of the 2008 Remuneration Package for Political, Public, and Judicial Office Holders in Nigeria by the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMFAC) held at Adegbemile Hall, Akure. 

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Governor Akeredolu claimed that the record had it that public officials in the defunct South Western Region were the highest paid in the country because the visionary leaders ensured that the best were recruited to serve the people. 

The governor said the logic of mopping up revenues accruable to states and local governments into a general pool for sharing by some Federal Government (FG) formulas is anachronistic and retrogressive. 

He insisted that power must devolve to the federating units for the country to lay claims to being a federal State. 

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Akeredolu, who was represented by his deputy, Hon. Lucky Aiyedatiwa, said it is not sufficient for RMFAC to regulate the salaries of public officials, charging the Commission to make conscious efforts to reduce the overbearing influence of the FG and its institutions on the constituent units to encourage development.  

Governor Akeredolu lamented that the autonomy of the States has been eroded greatly, stressing that the Houses of Assembly have been relegated to the fringe in the affairs of their respective States. 

Akeredolu, who identified Revenue generation as the bedrock of fiscal policies, urged the FG to allow local economies to flower.

The governor further called for the need to tinker with the current structure to allow the real creation of wealth rather than concentrate all attention on how to share it. 

He said the discovery of oil, which was the reason for the remarkable progress of other countries has become a huge curse in the country, saying only those who benefit from the current dysfunction will want it to continue.

Akeredolu said FG is pretending that all is well with the country when it is dithering on the brink of collapse, noting that all patriots must be resolute in challenging the present structural defects which stifle growth.