Indications that the Federal Government is working on review of the federal allocation formula to increase the take-home of the states is cheering news. It is a welcome policy, and we encourage the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMFAC, to give it expeditious attention.

Policies like this confirm that President Bola Tinubu is still very much a “progressive”. If this comes to fruition, it will mark another occasion when the administration voluntarily ceded more revenue opportunities to the states.

The president’s Tax Reform Bills which he signed into law on June 26, 2025, also voluntarily increased the Value Added Tax distributable revenue from 50 to 55 per cent, while reducing that of the Federal Government to 10 per cent. According to reports, the allocations to the states could jump from the current 26.72 per cent to between 30 and 40 per cent. With this humongous windfall, the states will be in a much better position to take on more aggressive and ambitious developmental burdens and reduce the parasitic dependence of some of them on Aso Villa.

Indeed, this is a consequential policy, following the devolution of some powers such as railways, power supply and others. We also expect more of such devolutions after the ongoing Constitution amendment, whereby the States may play bigger roles in the security architecture. If the States are empowered to establish Police and Correctional facilities, the increase in revenue will enable them to do so effectively.

We also expect the Federal Government to give up more federal roads and bridges to the states and focus strongly on construction and maintenance of major bridges and Trunk “A” federal highways that traverse multiple states. To combat the ugly incidence of boat mishaps on our major rivers and other water bodies, we also advocate for states to set up their own inland waterways agencies.

The Federal Government is too far away to carry out some critical acts of governance at the localities. A true federal system must properly empower sub-national structures to function effectively and meet the people at the points of their needs.

More funds should also mean more responsibility and accountability. We need healthy competitions among the states and local government areas. Competition was what made the First Republic tick. More federal revenue should not mean more indolence among office-holders.

Also, we must devise ways of making elected office-holders at all levels more accountable. The state houses of Assembly, just like the National Assembly, have failed to perform their constitutional mandates of holding the executive branch in check. They have chosen to collude, for corrupt self-enrichment. The people, anti-graft agencies and Judiciary should do more to keep treasury looters in check.