What is your stance on devolving power, resources, and revenue control from Abuja to the states?
On giving more power to states, I am determined to move key responsibilities off the Exclusive Legislative List and onto the Concurrent and residual levels, so your state has greater control over sectors that affect your daily life. This means transferring greater authority to states over policing, prisons, and railways. It means decentralising control over mines, minerals, oil fields, and natural gas, with clear national standards and safeguards in place. I will also let states manage things like business registration, drugs and narcotics control, and criminal identification systems. On power, I plan to move electricity distribution and generation off the exclusive federal list, so states and off-grid developers can connect and supply electricity directly to communities like yours. Alongside this, I want to strengthen fiscal federalism and revenue allocation, reforming the revenue-sharing system to give states a greater share of national resources and stronger incentives to develop their local economies.
On resource control, I am determined to promote responsible resource control with national balance. States will have greater control over natural resources within their territories, while contributing fairly to the federation through taxes and royalties. This means amending laws like the Petroleum Act, the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, the Land Use Act, and the Petroleum Profit Tax Act, so states can manage and benefit more directly from their resources. States will remit agreed taxes or royalties to the federal government to maintain national balance and shared responsibility. I also want to encourage states to develop resource-based industries, including processing and value addition, rather than relying solely on extraction, with clear regulatory frameworks for environmental protection, transparency, and accountability. I want to expand the derivation principle to cover solid minerals and hydropower, so producing states benefit more directly.
