Worried about the overdependence on the federal government by the state governments, the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has asked states to enact laws that will create an enabling environment to attract investments in states.
NESG said states should reduce their dependence on the federal government by creating an atmosphere that will be favourable for investors to come, thereby giving way for competitive development among them (states).
The Chairman of NESG, Mr Asue Ighodalo While speaking at a High-Level Dialogue with Conference of Speakers State Legislatures of Nigeria, said states should look inwards on where it has comparative advantage and enact laws to allow them to take advantage of it.
“It is key that each state starts looking inwards on where it has comparative advantage and in those circumstances, they now have to come up and enact laws that allow them to take advantage of these areas where they have a comparative advantage.
“The days of going cap-in-hand with the federal government for FAAC and fund requests are fast gone, the resources of the federal government are tight, revenue hasn’t gone up nationwide.
“States have to start becoming ingenious as to where they will find revenue, resources, and corollary to that really is that states must make themselves attractive to investments so that they are in a position to task those businesses and the multiplier effect of those businesses being in their states must be felt.
“So, there is a lot of work to be done, I think one of the things we haven’t taken advantage of is what are we strong at? If we look at the 36 states, what can we do better than the next state, and how do we work on the things we are strong at?”
He said in the early 60s, regions had peer pressure, each region was pushing the other region to develop, but it has been lost over the years and there is a need to go back there.
“We need to go back to states galloping at development and there being positive and competitive peer pressure and then seeing the states all developing at pace, it is critical to the development of our country.
“All development is local, it starts from the grassroots, the small scale businesses all start from the grassroots, so we need to support and create the environment for all of that,” he noted.
Mr Ighodalo said some of the states talked generally of not being in charge of things like security, he said he believes the federal government is working very hard to deal on the issue of security, “and we hope that sooner than later, we will be able to resolve our security issues, but aside from that, I think the states should concentrate strongly on how do they encourage investments, how do they make themselves attractive, what are the things they have advantage on, how do they make those things critically important and positive for their state,” he added.
In his goodwill message, the Chairman Conference of Speakers State Legislatures of Nigeria, Abubakar Suleiman, said, the Conference of Speakers and indeed the state lawmakers in Nigeria shall continue to discharge their legislative responsibility for the growth and development of our country, though to the extent that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria grants State Houses of Assembly the powers to do so.
He acknowledged the efforts of the NESG over time, in promoting and championing an open and private sector-led globally competitive economy for Nigeria.
“It is important to stress the importance of decongesting the Exclusive Legislative List for the Concurrent List. In other words, certain items in the Exclusive list should be moved into the Concurrent list for better legislation. We are hopeful this would be achieved in the ongoing exercise of the Constitution review.
“We are pleased to grant the request for a collaboration with the Nigerian Economic Summit Group with a view to facilitating sub-national legislative frameworks that will deliver sustainable economic development at the sub-national level in the priority sectors of the economy,” he said.
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