Vice President Kashim Shettima has stressed that the nation’s biggest challenge in its federal system lies not in its structure but in a pervasive deficit of fiscal responsibility across the three tiers of government.
He emphasised, however, that the administration of President Bola Tinubu was committed to bold reforms aimed at promoting a more functional and people-centered federal system.
According to him, a key pillar of this effort was the present government’s push for local government autonomy in the country.
Delivering a keynote lecture at the 17th Leadership Annual Conference and Awards, yesterday in Abuja, the Vice President who was represented by the Special Adviser to the President on General Duties (Office of the Vice President), Aliyu Modibbo, called for greater accountability and reform to strengthen Nigeria’s fiscal federalism.
Shettima said: “There is no doubt that the Nigerian challenge, when carefully considered, lies less in the structure of our federalism and more in the deficit of our collective fiscal responsibility.
“The problems we attribute to our federal system often stem from the poor management of what is already within our grasp, not from any inherent flaw in our constitutional architecture.”
