News Investigators/ The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, says fuel subsidy removal by President Bola Tinubu has made more money available to state governments.
Mr Wike, who stated this during his end-of-year media chat in Port Harcourt, argued that state governments now make an annual budget of more than N1 trillion.
He added that smart Nigerians, who knew that so much money was in the state, had taken steps to get their share of the “national cake” through different means.
The minister pointed out that with so much money in the states, the quality of life of the people would generally improve, urging residents to demand accountability from their state governors.
He said he had never gotten the kind of money that state governors now have in his eight years as governor of Rivers, stressing that he had never received more than N200 billion in a year.
“In all my life, as governor for eight years in Rivers, I have never received from the Federation Account more than N200 billion in a year. The records are there.
“States are now making a budget of over a trillion because the removal of fuel subsidy has now made money available to the states and so most of them are blindfolded,” he said.
The minister said that he would do wonders if he had N500 billion in FCT account, stressing that FCT gets only 1 per cent of the share of the Federal Government (FG) from the federation account.
“Take for example, if FG gets N1 trillion, 1 per cent is N10 million and that is not enough to pay salary. I will have to go back to Internally Generated Revenue, but look at what is happening in Abuja.
“With the little we have got, we have been able to do the best that we can for the residents of FCT,” he said.
He, however, cautioned that money has its own limitations, adding that there were areas where money could not go but goodwill would take someone there.
Wike expressed confidence that the candidates of the All Progressive Congress (APC) would win the FCT area councils’ election, scheduled for February due to Tinubu’s goodwill.
He added that no president did what Tinubu had done in the area councils, “which gives the APC candidates an upper hand.”
The minister equally added that beyond infrastructure, the FCT Administration had intervened in education, health, and the agricultural sectors.
“This, in the long run, will improve the standard of living of the people,” he said.
NAN