Nigeria will survive without oil, can we please think? (2)

It is the sharing of cheap oil money that makes Nigerian politicians dummies, men and women who cannot think. They only wait to share. It is sharing that makes ministers come to office and leave without making any impact on the economy. It is the same for presidents and governors who preside over a sharing formula and nothing else. Over the years they just become political bird of passage. It is the sharing of oil money that is tearing the PDP apart. It is sharing that has caused the sharp division in the country – North,South. If there was no oil revenue to share at the centre, the fight over the zone to produce the next president will not be a do or die affair. It is a shame that in the Nigerian political equation of today, none is thinking about how to make a bigger cake for all to share.
While the bickering over sharing is on by clueless politicians and their co exploiters, it is important for the federal, state and local government functionaries to put on their thinking caps and fashion out how to generate internal revenue to sustain their operations. It will be foolhardy for government at all levels to continue to rely and plan on proceeds from oil sales. For a very long time, the signals have been showing the simple fact that this economy cannot continue to run on crude oil sales. Many of the states which commissioners of finance gather in Abuja to share from the federation account cannot generate up to N200 million per annum. Local governments are worse. Some cannot generate even a million naira a year. Yet, all gather in Abuja to share oil money.

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