We Reject ‘Non-Viable’ Tag – Bayelsa Govt

Bayelsa State Government has faulted the report by some non-governmental organizations which declared that Bayelsa State is not economically viable, insisting that the report rated the state out of context.
The Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Maxwell Ebibai, who responded to the report rather asked that the Federal Government should allow the state to access its 13 percent derivation funds directly instead of releasing whatever they want without the state knowing how much accrued to it on a monthly basis.
Ebibai on Thursday in Yenagoa during a transparency briefing on the income and expenditure of the state for August, September and October, 2023, asked that Bayelsa State especially should be placed on a platform where everyone would see what actually accrued to the state every month, arguing that with that, the state will be seen to be more viable.
He argued that they should also make it constitutional for them to be collecting the 13 percent derivation directly the way the federal allocation commission releases the monthly allocation.
Ebibai said, “If you are rating the sustainability of a sate based on internal revenue. Let’s face the fact, internal revenue is collected on the basis of constitution.
“The constitution recognizes that we are entitled to 13 percent revenue and the federal government is only an agent of collection of the 13 percent revenue on behalf of the state. It’s our revenue, it is not federation revenue.
“The state should be allowed to collect this money directly because now, we are in a situation where it is the figures that they feed us with that we take as 13 percent figures. If we are allowed to be on some of our platforms to know what is actually going out of our platforms, we will be all comfortable. We strongly believe that is wrong for you to rely on constitution to determine the basis for internal revenue and when it gets to 13 percent, you now take the decision that the constitution is not relevant. And on that basis, you pass assessment on viable or nonviable. It is completely unfair and it is something that is not acceptable to us.
“You said 65 percent is internal revenue and you know that we are disadvantaged in this part of the country because the Petroleum Exploration Act deprives us from collecting certain levels of land use tax.
“We are in court because of that, we are expecting the court to determine that. So, you take away our ability to generate internal revenue and then somebody sits somewhere after the federation has arbitrarily taken away our ability to generate revenue and you are judging. It is very unfair and I think this is an advocacy not just for the government but for the people of Bayelsa State.”
He said instead of looking at the negative aspect that the state is not sustainable, “we should rather face the fact and let it be addressed. We should advocate on what the right thing is and let the right thing be done. If the right things are done, the state will be sustainable.
He said that as of September ending, the state closed the month with N3,365,000,000.
The commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Ayiba Duba, had thanked the press for being involved in the prosperity administration’s electioneering campaigns.
He said, “I want to thank you for the work you do and to tell you that as we march into the second term, we will all march in together and I pray that the synergy and relationship we form will take to us to greater heights.”