Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State declared on Wednesday that the categorisation of the state as insolvent also suggest that the Federal Government was bankrupt.
Diri spoke when he hosted a delegation from the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission at the Government House, Yenagoa.
Recall that the chairman of RMAFC, Mr Elias Mbam, had grouped Bayelsa with the four states of Borno, Kebbi, Katsina and Taraba as states that had become insolvent.
But Diri rejected and contended that Bayelsa, as an oil and gas-producing state, could not be declared insolvent, he described as surprising the recent categorisation of Bayelsa among five states that are insolvent by the commission, given the fact that it is about the highest producer of oil and gas, which is the mainstay of the Nigerian economy.
According to him, the time had come to change the revenue formula to reflect the principles of “true federalism which promotes equity and justice.”
The governor, who renewed his call on multinationals to relocate their headquarters to Bayelsa, said, “We cannot be doing things the same way and expect a different result. A state where a good percentage of the revenue that Nigeria shares (is generated), is said to be bankrupt. How does that happen in any normal society? It tells us that there is an abnormality in this country. Should Bayelsa be bankrupt, then Nigeria should also be declared bankrupt.”
He charged the RMAFC to be agents of change to ensure that the current abnormalities in Nigeria’s federal structure were corrected.