The immediate past Governor of Niger State, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu, on Saturday defended the inability of the last administration to save part of its income in the boom era for the rainy days.
Aliyu said the government was handicapped by the 1999 Constitution.
He made the remarks in Minna as the Chairman at the second edition of the NDEDI Annual lecture series, which had as its theme: “The Emergence of the Current Economic Realities: Expectations on the part of government and the private sector.”
According to Aliyu: “What the Constitution provided for was for all amount generated to be put in the Federation Account and shared between the the three tiers of government.
“The Constitution did not say we should save anything.
“What the Constitution says is that we should generate and share.
“It will be illegal for us to say we want to save, the law does not allow it.
“The 1999 Constitution did not think of any rainy day; the Constitution says all money generated should be put in a pool and shared to the three tiers of government.”
Aliyu however said he and some of his colleagues were convinced at the time of the need to keep some money aside for eventuality, which brought about the establishment of the Sovereign Wealth Fund.
He said: “Although I was one of the governors that at the time opposed the idea and even went to court to challenge the scheme, we still were able to reserve over N2.56 billion as at the time we left the government in 2015.”
Aliyu therefore called for a review of the 1999 Constitution to make it mandatory for all the tiers of government to save no matter how little from their income.
He said: “Such a constitutional provision will take care of the type of situation we have on our hands where not less than 26 States in the country cannot pay workers salaries.”
Speaking on the fight against corruption, Dr. Aliyu said both the Constitution and the electoral amendments should be made to provide legal framework for the war against corruption.
He said by so doing, the campaign would not be terminated with or by any administration as successive governments would be bound by law to carry on the drive.
Speaking on how to get out of recession, Aliyu said more efforts should be put into agricultural production, adding that the present policy encouraged only subsistence farming.
The Executive Director of Newgate College of Technology, organizers of the inaugural lecture, Alhaji Hassan Nuhu, in an address stressed the need for the private sector to be encouraged to drive the country out of recession.
The lead paper was presented by Prof. Ahmed Sadauki Abubakar of the Federal University of Technology Minna.
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