The 36 states in Nigeria shared a total of about N9.3tn as federal allocation between June 2019 and December 2022, a period of 43 months, which formed the bulk of the second tenure of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).
Data sourced from 43 monthly reports of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, as released by the National Bureau of Statistics indicated that Delta State got the highest allocation during the period under review, while Akwa Ibom and Rivers states followed.
The NBS had yet to upload the FAAC reports for the months of January, February and March 2023, when checked on Sunday by one of our correspondents.
For the 43 months period that was reviewed by our correspondents, it was observed that Delta State got the lion share of about N843.8bn, Akwa Ibom received about N643.2bn, while Rivers got about N642bn.
Further findings showed that Sokoto State got the leased allocation during the three years and seven months period, as it received N119.1bn.
It was followed by Osun State, which got the second least allocation of N126.4bn during the review period, while the state that got the third lowest allocation was Cross River, with N141.71bn.
Our findings further showed that other states, including Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Bauchi and Bayelsa received about N188.75bn, N221.86bn, N204.54bn, N200.5bn and N543.6bn, respectively.
Benue, Borno, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu and Gombe received N192bn, N233.9bn, N171.3bn, N247.5bn, N148.4bn, N196.3bn and N156.6bn, respectively.
For Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara and Lagos states, their various FAAC allocations during the period under review were N215.96bn, N223.7bn, N242.5bn, N308.4bn, N233.7bn, N204.3bn, N193.3bn, N154.1bn and N457.4bn respectively.
The remaining states of Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, Plateau, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara, received allocations of N179.5bn, N189bn, N147.8bn, N202.8bn, N225bn, N149.7bn, N267.9bn, N184.3bn and N167.3bn respectively.
It was observed that the states shared about N1.47tn from June to December 2019, while in 2020 they shared a total of about N2.29tn.
In 2021, the 26 states of the federation, excluding the Federal Capital Territory, shared about N2.35tn, while in 2022 the FAAC disbursed about N3.16tn to the states.
This brings the total allocation that was shared by the states during the 43-month period to N3.27tn.
Experts tackle states
Meanwhile, economic analysts have said the level of development in states is not commensurate with the allocations received by the governments.
Economic and financial experts confirmed that state governments, particularly those of oil-producing states, had failed to develop their areas with the trillions of naira received as allocations from FAAC every year.
They called on civil society and other anti-corruption groups to start scrutinising the financial expenditures of state governments, stressing that most governors embezzled the allocations from FAAC.
“State governors are too powerful in their states and have used that privilege to steal a lot of money from the coffers of their states,” a former President of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria, Dr Sam Nzekwe, stated.
He added, “Take Rivers State, for instance, that state should not be telling you that it has no money to fix roads and carry out other basic infrastructural development in key areas of the state.
A lot of money goes to Rivers, Delta and Akwa Ibom states. This is aside from what they also generate internally. If they use the money they get the way it is supposed to be used, there will be less problems in these states.
“But the majority of the money ends in the pockets of the governors. The Kaduna State governor recently said he knows a governor who stashed N500m of these new naira notes in his house. You can see that they loot money and fail to deliver projects in their various states.”
Also reacting to the development, the Director, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprises, Dr Muda Yusuf, noted that the refusal of public officials to publicly defend their expenditure accounts had deepened corruption in government.
He said the quality of personnel in government offices must be scrutinised, adding that the digitisation of government processes would ensure transparency and reduce corruption.
Yusuf said, “The issue of accountability, transparency in public expenditure, that ensures value for money is a very big problem in the public sector generally.
“The amount of exposure to these shortcomings is a function of how much revenue is at the disposal of each government, agencies, department.
“The higher the amount at their disposal, the higher the proportionate level of corruption, and this affects the way government finances are managed. The impact and degree varies with the level of opportunities that they have.”
Yusuf further called for citizen participation, stressing that citizens should do more in interrogating the finances of state governments.
“As citizens we need to do a lot more in terms of advocacy, demand more accountability for whatever expenses that are procured and also demand that the State House of Assembly should be up and doing to ensure proper checks and balances.
Digitisation may be good to get transparency and manage projects, but the bigger issues are the persons involved in the process. What is more important is the quality of those who are in governance.
“We need to have persons committed to transparency and accountability and better financial management, as well as those who are prudent in spending,” he stated.
On his part, a professor of Economics at the University of Ibadan, Prof. Adeola Adenikinju, said the level of poverty in many rural areas of the oil producing states that got higher allocations, was appalling.
He said, “In many of the areas in the oil producing communities, you see a lot of poverty and deprivation. Infrastructure, electricity (in the areas) is not available, yet these people cannot carry out their primary operations because their land is polluted.
“So, it is very incumbent on the state government to ensure that these people are able to enjoy the benefits derived from oil production in their communities.”
Another professor of Economics at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Prof. Sheriffdeen Tella, said some of the states had no development plans to guide them on what to spend on.
He pointed out that the case of Rivers State was, however, clear due to multiple projects it inaugurated in recent months.
He, however, stated that the case of Delta and Akwa Ibom states was different, because the states had less visibility in the media as regards developments in them.
Tella said, “The case of Rivers is clear with multi-projects commissioning in the last few months. One cannot say kudos to Delta State and Akwa Ibom State, as there is less visibility in the media on developments in those states,l.
“Although Akwa Ibom was trying to industrialise at a point. Not much was heard later. Do these states have development plans to guide them on what to spend funds on? No.”
