Northern Governor's forum Raised The Alarm Over Oil Revenue Saying: ‘North Becoming Poorer, S/South Getting Richer’

Trouble may be looming over allocations from the Federation Account to the states as feelers from the North indicate that the governors believe they are not getting a fair share from the nation’s commonwealth.
 

Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State, one of the 19 northern govs, yesterday, slammed what he described as a Federation Allocation regime that enriches some states, especially those in the South-south, but impoverishes the northern states.

Kwankwaso said pointedly: “In this context, many other states, specifically in the South-south are today ahead of the northern states in terms of income from the Federation Account. This means that some states are getting richer while others are getting richer by the day and people are wallowing in devastating poverty.”

He hinted that the northern governors are also making an issue out of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), currently in the works in the National Assembly, saying the implications of the Bill being passed in its form would  have dire consequences for the North.

He said  the northern governors would soon meet to consider the implications of the PIB for the region.

Kwankwaso did not mention the specifics of the northern governors grouse with the PIB.
He spoke while commissioning the Serbian General Consulate Office in Kano, an event that coincided with the appointment of  a former lawmaker, Alhaji Faruk  Adamu Aliyu, as the Honoray Consulate of the Republic.

On the allocations from the Federation Account to the states, the governor said: “As a former member of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), a former member of the National  Assembly, a former minister and now a governor, I have vast  knowledge of what is being shared to all the states.”