President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday said he will await the final outcome of the constitutional review process before presenting the report of the review of the vertical revenue allocation formula to the National Assembly as a Bill for enactment.
The President made the comment in Abuja while receiving the report by the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), led by Engr. Elias Mbam. ‘‘Ordinarily, I would have gone ahead to table this report before the National Assembly as a Bill for enactment,” the President said, as quoted in a statement signed by spokesperson Femi Adesina.
‘‘However, since the review of the vertical revenue allocation formula is a function of the roles and responsibilities of the different tiers of government, I will await the final outcome of the constitutional review process, especially as some of the proposed amendments would have a bearing on the recommendations contained herein.”
President Buhari listed some of the recommendations in the report as follows: ‘‘Establishing local government as a tier of government and the associated abrogation of the state/local government account; moving airports; fingerprints, identification and criminal records from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent legislative list, empowering the RMAFC to enforce compliance with remittance of accruals into and disbursement of revenue from the Federation Account as well as streamlining the procedure for reviewing the revenue allocation formula.’’
The President assured members of the Commission that the Federal Government would immediately subject the report to its internal review and approval processes, while awaiting finalization of the efforts by the National Assembly.
