Restiveness in the Niger Delta area has started having its negative toll on the revenue generation capacity of the country, a member of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission in Abuja says.
Speaking at the weekend in a personality interview programme of the Correspondents' Chapel, Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission's (RMAFC's) Deji Ariyibi pointed out that the restiveness in the area has affected the production of oil which is the main stay of the nation's economy.
He noted that the crisis in the Niger Delta and oil pipelines vandalisation have forced down the production of oil by about 50% and this has greatly affected the oil revenue accruing to the federal government.
He said: "The happenings in the last three months have started having negative effects on the country through revenue accruable to the country. It has forced down oil production to about 50% and if things continues this way, all parts of the country would feel it and this would not augur well for the country."
While stressing the need for the nation to diversify her economy from oil, Ariyibi cautioned that it was high time the three tiers of government strove harder in shifting attention from the oil sector to other non-oil sectors.
He also cautioned all tiers of government against over reliance on statutory allocations from the federation account. He said all tiers of government must start looking inward by mobilising all available resources internally for the self-sustainability of such tiers of government.
He said government’s continued dependence on oil revenue has continued to have adverse effect on governance and democracy adding that this attitude must change to bring a new lease of life to the people at the grassroots level.
"The backbone of any government should be its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), and any government that is not self sustained by its environmental resources can collapse any time," he stressed.
Speaking further, he said: "Government should be sustained by the economic strength of its environment through internally generated revenue and such level of government must evolved strategies to enhance the IGR so as to boost the revenue base of any government."
Source: Daily Independent