Osinbajo reveals Nigeria’s problem, says it’s not restructuring

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday disagreed with Nigerians who believe that the problem of the country is largely due to its political structure and have been demanding for its restructuring.

The Vice-President blamed failures of past leaders to manage resources properly and providing for the people appropriately as the major cause of Nigeria’s problems and not restructuring.

In buttressing his argument, he wondered how past leaders like former military president, Ibrahim Babangida; former President Olusegun Obasanjo, late President Musa Yar’Adua, and former President Goodluck Jonathan could get $982.8 billion from oil revenues that accrued to the country during their administrations in 24 years without much to show for it.

According to a statement on Monday by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr Laolu Akande, the Vice-President made this argument while responding to questions from Nigerians at a town hall meeting in Minnesota, the United States of America, on Sunday.

“The problem with our country is not a matter of restructuring and we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into the argument that our problems stem from some geographical restructuring. It is about managing resources properly and providing for the people properly, that is what it is all about.

“I served for eight years as Attorney General in Lagos State and one of the chief issues that we fought for in Lagos State was what you call fiscal federalism. We felt that there was a need for the states to be stronger, for states, to more or less, determine their fortunes.

“So, for example, we went to court to contest the idea that every state should control, to a certain extent, its own resources (the so-called resource control debate). We were in court at that time up to the Supreme Court and the court ruled that oil-producing states should continue to get 13 per cent derivation.

“While we were at the Supreme Court only the oil-producing states and Lagos were interested in resource control, everybody else was not interested in resource control for obvious reasons.

“Now, that is the way the argument has always gone. Those who have the resources want to take all of it, while those who do not have want to share from others,” he said.

Further basing his argument on the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ statistics on oil revenues accruable to Nigeria under successive administrations between 1990 and 2014, the Vice-President said not much had been done in terms of infrastructure development despite the huge oil revenues realised by the country.

“Under the IBB/Abacha administrations (1990 – 1998), Nigeria realised $199.8 billion.

“Under the Obasanjo/Yar’Adua governments (1999-2009), the country got $401.1 billion.

“During the Jonathan administration (2010-2014), Nigeria got $381.9 billion from oil revenues.

“The question that we must all ask is what exactly happened to resources? The question that I asked is where is the infrastructure?

“When added together, the oil revenues that accrued to the country under IBB, Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan amounted to $982.8 billion.

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“One of the critical things that we must bear in mind and see is that this government, despite earning $94 billion, up until 2017, we are spending more on infrastructure and capital than any previous government. So, we are spending N1.5 trillion on capital. That is the highest we have spent since 1990,” he said.

Meanwhile, Osinbajo had in June this year said that Buhari’s administration was not opposed to restructuring as being canvassed in many quarters.

He had also in August last year, denied media reports quoting him as describing proponents of restructuring as political jobbers. He had then said that the restructuring debate is an important one.

“At no time did the acting President say that those asking for restructuring were political jobbers looking for appointments. The video, audio tapes and full text of his speech at the National Security summit organised last week by the Department of State Services, are publicly available.

“Besides, the debate on restructuring is an important one and the calls for restructuring cover a wide range of legitimate and constitutionally valid issues. Indeed all Nigerians have both a right and a duty to advance their arguments on the subject,” he had then said.

 

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