Plateau State Governor, Caleb Muftwang, said yesterday that though the monthly federal allocation disbursed to state governments had risen, the purchasing power and the real value of the money allocated has “decreased significantly” due to the inflationary pressure on the economy and the wobbling naira.
The governor spoke against claims by President Bola Tinubu, in his nationwide broadcast on Sunday, amid ongoing protest against hunger in the country, that money saved from removal of fuel subsidy was used to mark up monthly from the federation account to states to enable them address the hardship Nigerians were currently facing.
Muftwang said: “It is true that in terms of amount, it has actually increased but in terms of purchasing power, in terms of real value, it has decreased very significantly,”
Asked to mention the monthly allocation to his state, the governor said he “can’t give an exact figure” because what has come in so far monthly has fluctuated.
While noting that the prices of diesel, cement, iron rods and other materials used for the construction of critical infrastructure had increased, Governor Muftwang said: “So, we shouldn’t just look at the amount, let’s look at the purchasing power of the amount that the state has so far received from the federation account.
“It doesn’t need any rocket science. When the last administration came in 2015, the dollar exchanged to about N180 to the naira. Today, you are telling me that money has increased but all of us know the value of the naira to the dollar.
“We are still a consumer nation; many of the things we are using in governance are imported and so they are dollar-denominated.”
Currently, the federal government gets a total of 52.68%, states get 26.72% while LGs get 20.60% of the country’s monthly revenue allocated by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC, which operates under the Presidency, and disbursed by the Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC.
Recall that protesters in the nationwide protest have persistently asked the President to reverse the removal of fuel subsidy, blaming the hardship in the country on it because of the manner it shot up the rate of inflation which currently stands at over 34 per cent and food inflation at over 40 per cent.
