The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, has urged Nigerians to hold governors and local government chairmen accountable for the growing revenues allocated to them.
Yilwatda said monthly allocations to all tiers of government have tripled under President Bola Tinubu’s administration, giving subnational leaders greater capacity to deliver development projects.
Speaking at the launch of Vicious Red Circle, a book written by Alex Oriaku, in Abuja on Sunday, the APC chairman said no governor or council chairman now earns less than three or four times their previous monthly allocation.
His words: “No governor in Nigeria can deny that. Two years ago, the total allocation was about ₦400 billion per month.
“But today, the last share was ₦2.2 trillion. No governor in Nigeria today collects less than three times, up to four times what they used to collect. None.
“I would say, talk to your governors. Talk to your local government chairmen. Let them do more.”
The APC chairman said the Tinubu administration was steering the country in the right economic direction, with improving indicators showing that reforms were working.
He stated: “I dream that I have a party that is driving Nigeria in the right direction. We make changes that may look unreasonable to the eyes of some, but deep within our hearts, they are changes that improve the lives of our people.”
Yilwatda noted that despite predictions by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that Nigeria’s economy would not grow beyond 3 per cent, the country had achieved a growth rate of 4.23 per cent.
“It was predicted that by now, we can’t do more than one million barrels per day of crude oil, but we are doing 1.7 or 1.8 million barrels per day.
“I can keep giving the numbers, but these numbers must reflect on the people,” he noted.
