The North is rich and can survive without billions generated from Southern states – Northern Elders Forum says

The Northern Elders Forum has said that the northern region of Nigeria is capable of surviving on its resources without relying on money generated via VAT in Southern states.

This was according to a statement by the group’s Director of Publicity and Advocacy, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, in an interview on Arise TV’s show following the decision by some Southern states insisting that tax generated in the state be paid to the state and not to the Federal Government.

The Court of Appeal in a ruling on September 10 stopped the collection of VAT by Lagos and Rivers State pending the determination of an appeal filed by the Federal Inland Revenue Service against the judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt.

Reacting to this, Baba-Ahmed said: “I will advise that we wait to hear what the court says. However, even the fact that it has become an issue suggests that we really do need to address the fundamentals and the manner in which the federation works.

“We have always supported restructuring. We have always asked that a major and genuine shift initiative either by groups or the National Assembly so that matters like this be addressed properly. If we don’t do that now, then we should get a leader that would do that in 2023. This administration appears not to understand the importance of restructuring; we do in the north, we recognize the fact that we need to change the manner in which we generate wealth and allocate.

“The thing about is: the north wants restructuring; the north wants fiscal federalism. We are a rich region and we can live on what we have, even if we don’t have the billions that accrue to others states. Our poverty is not a kind of problem that we would break this country over.”

One Comment

  1. that is true then why are your people depends on our money and resources to survive cuz we provide basically everything to serve the North…..

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Articles

Back to top button
Close

Adblock Detected

Disable Your Browser Adblocker For better Experince