Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, on Saturday disclosed that the state’s monthly federal allocation surged from an average of N3.8bn to N4.5bn before the removal of fuel subsidy, to between N14bn and N16bn today.
He credited President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms for freeing up resources previously consumed by subsidy payments across all tiers of government.
Sule made the disclosure while receiving a delegation of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors National Media Tour, led by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, at the Nasarawa State Government House in Lafia.
Sule said, “I can tell you for free. You are right when you say that in the first four years, everybody knows Nigeria was sharing anywhere between maybe N590bn to about N620bn monthly as total FAAC allocation.
“For Nasarawa State, what we were getting was anywhere between maybe N3.8bn to N4.5bn for the state, and for the local governments, anywhere between N1.9bn to N2.5bn every month.
“With the removal of subsidy today, I can tell you for free, Nasarawa State is receiving an average of N14bn to N16bn every month.”
He said the scale of the increase in the federal allocation explained his earlier public defence of the President’s reforms.
“That’s why when I say he took the bullet on our behalf, the President took the bullet for all the subnationals for coming out with the reforms that they did.
“What the President did was to free up resources that the states have been longing for to develop the states.
“The money was not coming; the money was being consumed by subsidy on petrol and subsidy on foreign exchange,” he said.
Sule, who became Governor before the 2023 reforms, further explained, “In 2019, I came in as governor, and we were looking for a N5bn bond in order to build a market, because the total allocation coming to the state was less than N60bn, our budget was like N90bn, and we performed about 66 per cent with that.”
“I had nothing less than 10 meetings for that N5bn, and we had to do an Irrevocable Standing Payment Order to prove we could repay it.” he said, citing the completion of the Keffi market.
He explained that the state had since spent approximately N90bn on new infrastructure, without borrowing.
Sule listed some projects to include a combined overhead and underground flyover built for N16.7bn, the dualisation of Akwanga Township Road for N7.1bn, an underpass in Akwanga for N6.6bn, the dualisation of the Shendam road for N5.6bn, a stormwater drainage channel at Amba Bridge for N3.3bn, the Keffi flyover for N11.4bn, and the twin flyover in Karu, which he said had already begun lifting property values in the area.
The Governor also credited federal mining policy reforms, requiring anyone mining in Nasarawa to also process the mineral within the state, for enabling the establishment of what he described as the biggest lithium mining and processing facility in Africa.
He said Nasarawa’s lithium is being receiving demand from several mining heavyweights including from Asia.
He credited Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, for championing the local processing policy, saying “He grabbed it, he took it, he’s serious about it.
He gave me all the support I needed, and that’s how we were able to build not only the biggest lithium mining facility in Nigeria, but the biggest in Africa.”
On agriculture, he disclosed that the state cultivates 10,000 hectares of rice, while on education, he highlighted a skills acquisition centre offering training in 12 trades, including electrical installation, welding, cabinet-making and agricultural mechanisation, open to both youths and retirees.
Responding, Onanuga said the media tour was designed to independently verify the federal and state government’s claims of development, rather than rely solely on official reports.
He said, “We want to verify federal projects, verify state projects, so that people can know that the reports are not just a waste of time, but were done in good faith to really develop our country.”