Diri says Bayelsa not financially insolvent
The Bayelsa State Government has reacted to the recent 2022 Annual States Viability Index report of the Economic Confidential which claimed that the state is among six others that are allegedly financially insolvent.
Governor Douye Diri faulted the report and said the analysis was based only on federal allocation and Internally Generated Revenue.
He said it was wrong to use the two parameters to determine a state’s viability without considering how their resources were being expropriated by the Federal Government.
A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Daniel Alabrah, on Thursday, said that Diri spoke during the 124th State Executive Council meeting in Government House, Yenagoa, the state capital, on Wednesday.
The Economic Confidential, in its 2022 ASVI report released on December 18, 2023, claimed that Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Katsina, Taraba, Yobe and Kebbi States were “the six states that may not survive without the Federal Allocation due to their extremely poor internal revenue generation of less than 10 per cent compared to their federal allocations…”
Bayelsa occupied the bottom of the list, having received N273billion and generating only N15.9billion, representing 5.81% of the allocations, the group stated.
Diri insisted that Bayelsa was not financially insolvent and that such reports came from “prophets of doom.”
He restated his call for the practice of true federalism and restructuring of Nigeria to determine the real viability of states.
The governor said Bayelsa, with its huge oil resources, is one of the richest states but that the lopsided federalism practice in the country had deprived it of controlling its resources and natural wealth.
He described as unacceptable the situation where states’ resources were being taken by the government at the centre, leaving the sub-nationals to depend on monthly allocation.
Diri said, “The prophets of doom will always make predictions that Bayelsa State is insolvent and I think they need to stop those predictions.
…
“We have called for a true and structured federalism. One of the richest states in Nigeria in terms of resources is Bayelsa. By no means will anybody convince me that our state is insolvent.
“We have been saying return our resources to us and let us compare what Bayelsa has with other states and see if we are one of those that cannot generate internal revenue.
“Now we depend on federal allocation where our resources have been expropriated, taken to Abuja and shared to other states. And you call us a poor state. That has to stop.”