By Ebun Sessou

LAGOS—Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola has raised an alarm over the dwindling resources of the state, which he said would affect the implementation of its 2015 Appropriation Bill. He explained that, the global fall in the price of crude oil, effect of the postponement of the general elections in the country, increase in exchange rate and others are serious impediments to the targeted income of the state government.

Fashola revealed that the actions of the managers of the nation’s economy have been inconsistent as the nation’s external reserves have dwindled considerably, which he said has seriously affected the revenue of the state.

Emergency meeting

He stated during an emergency meeting with the members of the Lagos State House of Assembly that the purchasing power of the people has reduced considerably and that the monthly shares of the Lagos State Government from the federation account has reduced from N11 billion to N10 billion. According to him, “the gross revenue performance of the state was 86 per cent in 2014, while budget performance could not be measured until the expected money comes in.

“The budget performance terminates with the revenue, which is about 80 per cent. We are the only government that has performed up to 80 per cent in the last three years. “We want to propose an amendment of the budget of all the agencies of government to the actual income of the revenue. It is not reduction of the budget, but to propose that no section gets up to 100 per cent of its budgetary allocation,” he said.

Governor Fashola maintained that the Nigerian economy is cut in troubled waters, adding that without electricity supply, prospects of alternative economic generation such as agriculture, small scale enterprises, tourism and others would become impossible.

Condemns poor votes for capital expenditure

He condemned a situation, where the Nigerian government votes less than 30 per cent for capital expenditure and over 70 per cent for recurrent expenditure. According to him, the dwindling fortunes of the Nigerian government would affect Lagos State mostly being the most populous state and the one that contributes most to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP.

He revealed that the minister of Finance, Mrs. Okonjo Iweala has instructed Nigerian banks not to give loans to any state government without her approval, which he said was because of the forthcoming elections. Fashola stated that it is regrettable that more than 5,000 workers from four construction companies lost their jobs in recent times, while 2,400 people lost their banking jobs in March, 2015 due to the poor state of the nation’s economy.

Many importers, he said are unable to clear their goods at the port due to the high exchange rate and that the Nigerian stock market lost a whooping N4 trillion due to the postponement of the general elections.