22/07/2011 (AllAfrica.com) - National Chairman of the National Action Council (NAC), Dr. Olapade Agoro has called for an urgent convocation of a Sovereign National Conference to discuss the nation's revenue sharing policy which he said is presently an anathema to Federalism.

According to Dr. Agoro, in a signed statement made available to journalists in Ibadan yesterday, Nigeria's Revenue Shairing Policy presently impedes economic growth and encourages corruption.

To this end, he stated, "the immediate convocation of a Sovereign National Conference is highly desirable to discuss the state of our leprous union, lack of commonsense revenue allocations and to ensure true value Federalism, if only to put paid to the nuisance value Boko Haram menace."

Agoro expressed concern over the present situation in Nigeria where virtually all the tiers of Government virtually rely on the Federal fiscal allocation for survival. Of more worrisome to him, as he put it, is the situation where available revenue in the country is shared among the Federal, States and Local Governments based merely on population and land mass considerations alone.

"Emphasis should henceforth be shifted to a revenue sharing principle based on what a state is able to contribute through sustainable productivity as Collective Contributive Inputs (CCI) to the national purse," he admonished

His said: "It becomes compelling for one to say that rather than the Federal Government, States and Local Governments relying on revenue sharing based on population and useless land mass considerations, the shift should henceforth be sharing on principle of what a state is able to contribute through sustainable productivity as Collective Contributive Inputs (CCI) to the national purse. No longer should parasite states be allowed to live on the inputs and resources of others."

Agoro recalled a recent statement credited to the new Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina that "Nigeria in the 60s accounted for 60 percent of global supply of palm oil, 30 percent of ground nut, 20-30 percent ground nut oil and 15 percent of cocoa," adding that those days were the golden era when farmers from the North to the South generated wealth.

"This explains also why we are developmentally better off in the days of yore, than when crude oil exploitation became our main source of economic sustenance," he stated just as he maintained that it further informed the predominant force of economic retardation, breeding ground for laziness and corruption sadly around us.

Agoro emphasized that the idea of constant revenue sharing by the federal government, states and local government without composite and corresponding productivity and real value Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to the national economic grid would explain away the whys of the "poor economic condition of the North East areas"

He declared: "Why must Borno State and other States in the North East region of the federation be classified as "...one of the poorest areas of the whole world" as argued last Saturday by the Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima.

Agoro rose in stout condemnation of the Federal Government's spending of a whooping sum of US$ 630 million on food importation in the year 2010 alone saying this was coming up when the land is there begging for tilling and agro- allied industries aimlessly waiting for exploitation.

.He stated further: "Saturday the 16th July 2011 outburst by the Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima that "Borno State and the entire North East region of Nigeria was one of the poorest areas of the whole world" must have sent and be seen by discerning minds as an implicative message on the state of a forced collocate of self deceiving nation, devoid of economic and political cohesion.

"The real weight value import of Shettima's message was his "blaming the economic condition of the area for the rise of the Boko Haram insurgency"

"What however is altruistically worth examining in the aforementioned statement is why the "poor economic condition of the North East areas" informed criminality by some deadly beasts unleashing terror, maiming and killing of the innocents in the name of religion.

"Shettima's message therefore offered to us enough of materials to carefully and properly examine and decipher what has been going wrong with the state of our federating units.

"This according to Mr. Danlade Kifasi, Permanent Secretary Federal Ministry of Finance was shared N693.79 billion to the Federal Government, N351.90 billion to States, N271.30 billion to Local governments, oil producing states getting further N171.21 billion on the principle of derivation.

"This is getting free money to spend that no body actually worked for. Unfortunately nothing much good in value could one see on ground as evidence of development for past allocations to the Federal Government, States and worse off the Local government councils."