Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, Northern Elders Forum (NEF)
spokesman, says the value-added tax (VAT) tussle in the
country is a wake-up call for northern governors to develop
their own resources without delay.

Baba-Ahmed said this during an interview with Arise TV on
Tuesday.

He said this following the legal battle between Rivers state
and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) over who will
be responsible for the collection of VAT from businesses in
the state.

Baba-Ahmed joins governors like Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe
state; Aminu Masari of Katsina state, including David Umahi,
governor of Ebonyi state, and Kogi state government, in
decrying the push for VAT collection by both Lagos and
Rivers.

Despite this opposition, some southern governors are in
support of states imposing and charging VAT.

“North, you said you have many people but you are under-
developing your own people – the biggest liability of the
north is that we have a huge population that is under-
developed. You need to develop the human capital that you
have,” Baba-Ahmed said.

“We need leaders, the current governors don’t recognise this.
Otherwise, they won’t be involved in this argument; allow the
court to decide.

“The VAT issue is a wake-up call for northern governors. If
the supreme court rules in favour of Rivers and Lagos, what
would governors in the north do?

“Northern governors should, without delay, develop their own
resources; they should develop the huge agriculture
resources to develop the north. The north has a huge
population that is largely undeveloped. This population can be deployed into agriculture to develop the north.

“Agriculture is a major asset; we have land, we have water,
we have livestock, we have minerals that are literally begging
to be picked from the ground but our governors are too
focused on the pittance that they are getting. This is wrong.”

https://www.thecable.ng/northern-governors-should-develop-their-own-resources-says-baba-ahmed-on-vat-tussle

No they won't do that. They'll rather empower more terrorists in the name of Boko Haram and Terrorist Fulanis to wreck havoc all over the country

Baba-Ahmed chill....

Natural resources like BANDITRY takes time before it starts yielding positive result.

Oil was discovered in Southern Nigeria in the year 1956 and Banditry was discovered in Northern Nigeria in the 2015... this things take time.

Read below it

And allow others control theirs.

You do not need to tell a blind man is raining

It is not too late but since there is free money from the south, you people will not do anything but to shout one Nigeria. No secession.

Nope! They are more interested in running to Abuja monthly to collect VAT accruing consolidated revenue and cashing out with it by paying off bandits and terrorists as amnesty.

Good advice for the hyp0crites. They should do it if it's easy and stop laying claim to VAT from the south.

They can run their mouths about having the population to vote in another northern president in 2023, but they can't use same population to accrue VAT. They keep clinging to the South to survive. Unity-begging parasites.

Hisbah police destroys alcohol in d north and are applauded,d governors don't say anything against it but want to partake in d sharing of vat collected from alcohol sales in d south. Russian thunder fire una 4 that una cow brain bequeathed North.
Yeye hypocrites,double standard people.

Kudos to Rivers & Lagos,who would believe such happening anytime,anyday? More to come,by d time King Bubu steps down in 2023, d Northerners/Fulanis will regret foisting him on d people.

No they are waiting for free money from Abuja, but e go over them. southern Nigeria need more than VAT what we need is total division of the country.