Restructuring: Is Osinbajo speaking for himself, APC or a paymaster

The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, a respected professor of law, Senior Advocate of Nigeria and constitutional lawyer, has been in the news for days now on account of a seeming political gaff he committed over the weekend.

The vice president had at an event in Elizade University, Ilara Mokin Ondo State, said that the recent calls for the restructuring of Nigeria were misplaced and what the country needs is not restructuring but diversification.

His comments did not go down well with the proponents of restructuring and fiscal federalism, among whom Osinbajo famously belonged before his election as vice president in 2015.

However, his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, issued a statement detailing the VP’s thoughts on the contentious issue.

According to the statement, the Vice President said calling for restructuring of the country simply because the Federal Government controls a bigger portion of the resources may not be helpful or make a difference.

“Even if states are given half of the resources of the Federal Government, the situation will not change. The only change is to diversify the economy,” the Vice-President was quoted to have said.

In place of restructuring, Osinbajo opined that the paucity of funds currently facing states in the country can end if state governments focus on agriculture.

“We are not earning enough from oil and taxes anymore. The nation is blessed; every state can feed itself and also export if we engage in agriculture,” he said.

If the vice president had thought this would be well received by the Nigerian public, then he was wrong, as groups and individuals have continued to fault his position, with some falling short of calling him names.

Among the prominent groups that took on the vice president is the Yoruba social cultural organization, Afenifere.

Read also: Restructuring: Osinbajo a disappointment to South West, says Afenifere

Calling him a disappointment to the Southwest, the group, which has been in the forefront of the agitation for restructuring, true and fiscal federalism, said the VP, might have been under pressure in making the statement.

This view has also been put forward by analysts surprised by the vice presidents new stand. It is thought that he may not be expressing his true feelings on the matter, but simply reflecting what his principal feels on the issue.

Over the years, there has been a sharp divide between proponents of restructuring, mainly from the southern part of the country, and those who want the status quo maintained, a position majorly canvassed by the northern part of the country.

It is for this reason many feel Osinbajo’s shifting of ground on the issue of restructuring is a misnomer, since the part of the country he comes from has always cried out for fiscal federalism, but his ‘master’s’ people have on the other hand, always stood against it.

Those conversant with the political antecedents of Prof Osinbajo will be quick to wonder at what point he deviated from his pro-restructuring position,  especially knowing the role he played while he was the Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice in Lagos State under Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu between 1999 and 2007.

The state government then, was at the forefront of the calls for restructuring, true and fiscal federalism, creation of state police and all other related issues.

Sensing the increasing backlash, the VP, Tuesday, on a live programme on Television Continental, TVC, tried hard to redeem himself and fall back into line, but in doing so, he succeeded in contradicting himself.

Osinbajo, in a major u-turn said, “I have always been a strong believer in fiscal federalism that is to say, that the states must have more resources, and we went to the Supreme Court. I actually went to the Supreme Court as Attorney-General of Lagos State, no less than ten times on issues of fiscal federalism.

“As a matter of fact, one of the things we said at that point was that we are trying to structure Nigeria’s federalism by court action.  We went to court several times.  For example on the issue of whether states have the right to certain degrees of autonomy, we fully supported that and said the state have right of autonomy with (regards) even to their resources.

“VAT for example: we believe VAT must be a state matter, sales tax ought to be a state matter. I strongly believe in that and we’ve always fought for those issues.

“I strongly believe that we must have state police.

“Dividing Nigeria, going back to regions and all of those kinds of things, I do not believe that at all. I don’t think that we need to go back to regions.

“But as a general position, Nigeria always needs to be re-engineered, we have to keep restructuring, re-engineering.

“States ought to have a good measure of control over their resources but we must have to agree how do you then ensure that the federal government itself functions. Do you need a federal government or do you not need a federal government?” the vice president asked on Tuesday.

By Timothy Enietan-Matthews …

 

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