Seizure of Lagos councils’ funds by Obasanjo govt. forced Lagos to grow its IGR from N600m to N45bn monthly — VP Osinbajo

“The seizure of Lagos funds by President Olusegun Obasanjo made us think like a sovereign state”

The seizure of Lagos State councils’ funds by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration forced the state government to look inwards and think like a sovereign state.

By the Executive rascality, Lagos was able to grow its Internally generated revenue.

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) said this in Ado at the Ekiti Economic and Investment Summit tagged, “Fountain Summit 2021”.

Given the Lagos experience, he challenged state governors to invest heavily in the various aspects of the economy to bolster up their revenue base and reduce dependence on allocations from the Federation Account.

“During my time as a Commissioner in Lagos, we started with N600 million monthly internally generated revenues in 1999.

“The seizure of Lagos funds by President Olusegun Obasanjo made us think like a sovereign state.

“Today, Lagos is making over N45 billion monthly,” Osinbajo said.

The Vice-President said the major focus of state chief executives (governors) should be attracting investments to their states, pointing out it should be the revenue hub.

“Attracting investments to any state should be the major focus of state chief executives because that is the revenue hub and determinant of how happy the people of any state will be in terms of economic development with their standard of living.

“But while trying to grow investments, we must be cautious of multiple taxations; it weighs down businesses.

“Ekiti is a business-friendly environment. Ekiti has also excelled in the aspect of ease of doing business. You have vast arable lands for agriculture.

“Let me say that Ekiti has a bigger economy than many Africa nations. The question we should ask ourselves is that if I were the landlord of this sub-nation, how do we survive? Osinbajo, who spoke off the cuff, said.

Persecondnews reports that the summit featured Governors of Kayode Fayemi (host), Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Godwin Obaseki (Edo) and Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna) as panelists.

The governors had in their presentations called for state police to tackle insecurity in the states.