Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has berated state actors, who include Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State, Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina State, and others criticising him on the action of Rivers State government challenging the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in court over the collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) in the state.
Governor Wike receiving the delegation led by the Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of the SUN (Newspaper) Publishing Limited, Onuoha Ukeh, at Government House, Port Harcourt, on Monday, stared that Nigeria must encourage federating states to harness their resources and generate revenues, including VAT to promote development
The delegation was in Port Harcourt to present a letter of nomination to Governor Wike for the SUN Man of the Year 2020 Award.
Governor Wike had noted: “Some people say, be your brother’s keeper; I have no problem in being my brother’s keeper but why not come out and say, let us tell ourselves the simple truth?
“As it is being provided in the law, who is the person responsible to collect the VAT?
“When you agree to that, that it is the state, then, we can sit down to look at the different problems of states. And not to say be your brother’s keeper while you’re doing an illegal thing, in disobeying what the law says you should not do.”
Governor Wike, therefore, slammed a governor who was said to have vowed that the judgement of the court that allowed states to collect VAT within their jurisdiction would not stand.
Wike emphasized that the governor ought to commend Rivers State government for fighting for fiscal federalism and constitutionalism in Nigeria.
Governor Umahi had opposed the collection of VAT by states, advocating those states should be their brother’s keeper. He had noted that the collection of VAT by states will favour few states to the disadvantage of the less viable states.
Governor Masari had also chided Governor Wike for pursuing fiscal federalism in seeking states collection of VAT, threatening that the north can do without VAT.
The Governor exposed that there are attempts to frustrate Rivers and other states from actualizing the constitutional provisions that empowered states to harness their resources and revenues, particularly VAT.
Governor Wike also pointed out: “Look at the money that Federal Government has gone to borrow from the World Bank, of all the projects in all the states, the Federal Government did not include Rivers State.”
The governor protested that the country cannot make progress with discrimination of the federating units by the federal government.