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Post by Honorebu on Jun 12, 2016 18:48:30 GMT
Fam, just one of those threads I create whilst chilling on this gorgeous mattress randomly thinking about stuffs.  Straight to the point, no tori. How will the SW survive short term till we sort ourselves out if federalism were to be granted tomorrow?
In that case, there won't be federal Allocation (I guess) . As we can see, all our states are struggling bar Lagos and to some extent Ogun. They're waiting for bailout funds, they can't pay salaries Yeah we know the SW has the potentials but that's long-term. At the moment, na oil money dey save 4 of our states Ogbeni Ogunnaike Belmot Iya Niyen! Her Highness omohayek olukumi AgbongboAkala Short_Biscuit unclevince01 olukumi dansoye1 |
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Post by Iya Niyen! on Jun 12, 2016 19:18:20 GMT
E go hard cos cash flow will be a problem but we will have to "chop" our access to sea for now,We also have cement factories , we have rubber, palm oil, Cocoa, we just have to revive them.... Families will have to go into farming of food crops so hunger can be staved,no way out..
Cashew and Charcoal won't bring much but it will do for pocket change...
I'm not using christian faith but i know we will be fine.
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Post by omohayek on Jun 12, 2016 20:28:48 GMT
The only real option I see would be for us to cut our coat to our size, and abolish the six states and their duplicated governments, in favor of a return to the pre-1967 structure; most of those who would object to such a measure now would quickly change their minds once they were faced with the alternative of paying much higher taxes.
Of course, if federal allocations were to end, then the revenue sharing formula between states and the FG would also have to change, otherwise what excuse would Abuja have for collecting all that money? A more reasonable rate would be 75% for the states and just 25% going to the center. Lagos, Ogun and Oyo would see substantial benefits from keeping more of their border revenues, while Ondo would probably get the biggest boost of all from its oil earnings; on the other hand, Osun and Ekiti would be even worse off comparatively, making it all the more necessary to unify the revenue pot by abolishing the six states.
I think the next thing that would have to follow the end of federal allocations is that we would become much more serious about demanding the delegation of most responsibilities from Abuja to the regions: with such a pressing need to generate IGR without overtaxing ordinary people, the ability to reform sectors like the railways, electricity generation, air and seaports becomes a lot more important, because without these things businesses that can generate huge taxable profits simply can't thrive. Especially important would be a demand for a partitioning of the "national" grid into regional components, so we can leverage the concentration of industry in our region to build out a new system which actually works.
Assuming the necessary powers were delegated, what would have to follow would be to open up all of these sectors to a lot more 100% private investment (i.e. no "PPP"). Without any spare government funds floating around, there would be no other option, and the lack of direct government involvement in running things would actually make it more attractive to private investors to participate. Privately built and operated railroads, airports and transmission grids wouldn't suffer from Nigeria's recurrent problems of internal theft of company property, over-staffing with incompetent "quota system" employees, and neglect of long-term maintenance to make room for stealing operating funds.
In short, I think we would get by reasonably well if we had the necessary will to do the right things, and don't let the clannish obsession with everybody having their own "state" get in the way. The most important requirement would be a shift from thinking of "government" as a cost-free source of safe civil service jobs, to regarding it as a necessary evil which must be paid for out of people's earnings, and should therefore be restricted to only those areas where it is absolutely needed.
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Post by Short_Biscuit on Jun 12, 2016 21:53:33 GMT
The government must immediately declare a state of emergency on the economy of the entire region. Every Yoruba citizen must be willing to make sacrifices in order to position the region for success.
We would need to tell ourselves some hard truths including the fact that the government is broke, and that the previous costly socialist/big government type system of redundant civil servants who can't justify their pay isn't ideal for the region and must be replaced with a smaller government, that way the government can expend more resources towards capital projects geared toward modernization and infrastructural development, as opposed to just paying salaries with all that money gotten from land borders, sea ports, foreign trade, airport.
Invest heavily in quality education.
In addition, a massive reorientation program must be embarked upon to condition the minds of the general population to see the need for the changes being embarked upon.
Vigorously promote the region's service industry potentials.
Government must put in place policies that would enable the region consolidate her position as the preferred destination for FDIs via incentives like ease of doing business, tax breaks/holidays.
Work with Yoruba-owned ICT giants like Glo and MainOne to consolidate the region's position as West Africa's foremost ICT hub that way the region can attract a lot of venture capital.
The region's govt must facilitate the planting of a lot of Cocoa, Cashew, and other premium earning cash crops and when I say a lot I mean a whole lot. Lol
Begin serious exploitation of Heavy oil as well as other mineral resources.
e.t.c
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Post by Honorebu on Jun 12, 2016 23:05:44 GMT
Interesting suggestions omohayek Short_Biscuit Iya Niyen! . I noticed a lot of yorubas aren't even thinking about this. They think once the federalism is achieved, Yorubaland will just become Abu Dhabi Like you said, Ondo and Lagos will be our saviours during that period. Lagos via its ports, then ondo's oil and Ogun won't have to pay much royalties to the government anymore from it's limestone revenue .I'm not sure about oyo I don't know how the borders work tho whether the money made by the customs will be going to the pockets of the fg is a million dollar question Just like you, I have my fears on this state issue. Lagosians especially. Those things are bound to happen anyway but hopefully, we will sort it out The country is on its way to being restructured. I see that happening soon. Even Ambode just threw some weight behind it |
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