FG Insincere About State Of Economy, Says Fashola

Babatunade-Fashola-0214Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has accused the Federal Government of being insincere about the state of the nation’s economy.

He cited the Federal Government’s monthly Federal Allocation Accounts Committee meeting, which was scheduled to hold in Enugu State but was postponed over shortage of funds in the federation account.

Fashola made this known at the 2014 World Food Day/Agric Value Chain empowerment in Lagos on Thursday.

The governor, who presented agricultural empowerment materials to 3,149 persons at the Agric Day with the theme, ‘Family farming: Feeding the world, Caring for the Earth’, lamented that the federal government was not sincere with its citizens on the current state of the country’s economy.

He said, “As I was coming to this event, I received a message that the monthly Federal Allocation Accounts Committee meeting where states know how much the country earns monthly and what percentage would be shared between the three tiers of government-Federal, State and Local governments-from the federation accounts, had been postponed.

“The meeting which was scheduled to hold in Enugu State today (yesterday) was postponed because there were not enough funds in the federation account. That is the situation of the country’s economy today”.

Fashola said the Federal Government unreliable and that was why there was no state government that could function effectively without a well-structured tax system.

According to him, “If we are to wait for the monthly federal allocation, we will not be able to provide the dividends of democracy to the residents of Lagos State.

“It was through the money we realised from taxes that we used in providing the empowerment materials for the residents of the state.

“We do not measure the economic progress in our state by the number of billionaires and owners of private jets which exclude many in the country. But we measure ours by the number of ordinary people in the society”.