A lawmaker at the Kaduna State House of Assembly, Alhaji Suleiman Wakili, on Thursday says going by the current administration’s innovation on Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in Kaduna State, by 2022 it will no longer rely on federal allocation to execute projects.
Wakili, (APC-Zaria-city), who made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Zaria said the new innovation was actually yielding positive results.
He said the amount of money generated from IGR in the last four years was very huge compared to what was being realised before the coming of administration of Gov. Nasiru el-Rufa’i.
“What the present administration is generating from IGR in the last four years was so huge, this is possible due to innovation in the collection of money and the ability of government to block many leakages.
“This has actually boosted our IGR, our projection now is, by the year 2022, Kaduna State will be able to stand on its feet, we will no longer be waiting for federal allocation to execute projects.
“This is what informed different reforms and innovation in Kaduna Internal Revenue Generating Service (KADRIS) to ensure that the revenue is secured not diverted, but truly drop in the appropriate account it’s supposed to,” he said.
He noted that all major nations became developed through the use of taxation.
The lawmaker observed that failure of any government to collect tax would only lead to laziness and unpatriotism among citizens.
“Tax is a mandatory issue, in western world they don’t joke with it at all, their people pay tax regularly because they knew that the money will be put to use for the betterment of all.
“The major concern of the masses here in Nigeria is to physically see that the tax money is being used for human development. However, in Kaduna State we are happy we are blessed with a leader that has the interest of his people at heart.
“We must actually thank God for this government, no matter the level of opposition, nobody can point a finger at His Excellency, Malam Nasiru el-Rufa’i and call him a thief, they can only accuse him of following due process,” he said.
According to him, the governor wants people to be upright so that things can be done in the right direction at both state and local government levels.
“I can recall, there is somebody working at one of the local government councils who confirmed that he spent seven months without going to office, yet, he receives his salary every month.
“It might interest you to note that when the said person was disengaged during the el-Rufa’i’s reforms he started condemning the present administration,” Wakili said.
The lawmaker attributed the chain of contracts being executed by local government chairmen across the state, to the implementation of local government reforms by the present administration.
He noted with satisfaction that local government councils in the state were now boasting of awarding over N1 billion contracts apart from regular payment of salaries.
Wakili explained that in an effort to ease access to good healthcare, the government in his first tenure renovated and upgraded over 200 Primary Healthcare Centres across the state.
The lawmaker added that each of the 23 local government areas of the state was awarded ten kilometers of road
On modern markets being constructed across the state, Wakili described it as a move to woo investors, develop the economy and bring physical development to the society.
He encouraged traders and the entire people of that state to rally round the state administration to enable it deliver the dividends of democracy successfully.