By Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki has said that there would soon be no crude oil revenue for Nigeria to spend with the way the economy is run.
Obaseki made this statement on Wednesday during a meeting with the state’s Transition Committee in Benin.
According to the governor, the Nigerian economy can no longer rely on global oil prices because major oil-producing companies are now investing in alternative sectors, adding that the country is in a huge financial trouble.
“Nigeria has changed. The economy of Nigeria is not the same again whether we like it or not. Since the civil war, we have been managing, saying money is not our problem as long as we are pumping crude oil every day. So, we have run a very strange economy and strange presidential system where the local, state and federal government, at the end of the month, go and earn salaries. We are the only country in the world that does that.
“Everywhere else, the government relies on the people to produce taxes and that is what they use to run the local government, state and the federation. But with the way we run Nigeria, the country can go to sleep. At the end of the month, we just go to Abuja, collect money and we come back to spend. We are in trouble, huge financial trouble,” TheCable quoted him as saying.
Obaseki lamented that Nigeria was the only country in the world where the federal, state and local governments earn salaries at the end of the month, adding that the Federal Government printed N60bn as part of federal allocation for March.
He said: “In another year or so, where will we find this money that we go to Abuja to share every month? Last month, we got FAAC for March. The federal government printed an additional ₦50 to ₦60 billion to top-up for us to share.
“We say remove subsidy, they say no. This April, next week again, we will go to Abuja and share. By the end of this year, the total borrowing is going to be in excess of ₦15 to ₦16 trillion.”
