VP Professor Yemi Osinbajo

Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo has come under hammer of Yoruba social political group Afenifere over his dismissal of the calls for restructuring of Nigeria over the weekend.

Reacting to questions on the need for restructuring as a solution to the numerous problems confronting the country last weekend, the Vice President had said Nigerians should rather agitate for the diversification of the economy.

Advocates of restructuring had argued that most of the problems confronting the country can be taken care of if the states and local governments are given a greater share of federal revenue, responsibilities and are given more powers in terms of control of exploitation of the resources in their respective areas.

But speaking the second Foundation Lecture of the Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin in Ondo State, in a lecture titled: The Future is Here Earlier Than We Thought, the Vice President said a more viable proposition than restructuring the structure of the country will be to develop the economy.

“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. Even if states are given half of the resources of the federal government, the situation will not change, as the only change is to diversify the economy,” the Vice President was quoted to have said in a statement by his media aide, Laolu Akande.

Odumakin

Osinbanjo’s assertion is being vigorously challenged, with Afenifere leading the charge.

The Yoruba socio-political group pointedly accused the Vice President of not having a full grasp of the issues involved in the restructuring debate, in a statement by its spokesperson, Yinka Odunmakin.

The statement reads further, “The Vice-President in the faux pas also argued that if states are given half of the resources of the Federal Government it would not make any difference and that all we need is to diversify into agriculture.

“While we understand that the learned Professor, who is from the zone that has been loudest on this call may have come under pressure to lend his voice to the upholders of the status quo that has brought Nigeria to this sorry pass, we would like to respectfully admonish him to be sure footed on the subject before he speaks next time.

“He misses the entire debate by engaging in the reductionist argument narrowing the whole issue to taking more money from the Federal Government to the states. Yes, fiscal federalism is part of the argument but the issue goes beyond the monthly Federal Allocation Committee.

“The central plank of restructuring is for Nigeria to go back to the true practice of Federalism wherein mineral resources that abound in all states would be freed from the exclusive list so that states would move into prosperity and not be reporting at Prof Osinbajo’s office for bailout from a centre that only corners what belongs to the states. They would also have enough to contribute to sustain the occupiers of Abuja and the functions that are allocated to them.

“Beyond resources, the country is reeling under crime today and the single police we currently maintain have proved incapable of dealing with the situation. When you listen to commissioners of police lamenting at the scenes of crime these days you will think they are part of passers -by terrified by the horror of crime. It is clear we need multi-level policing to combat crime and have effective policing.

“From the Federal, down to states and Local Governments, we are bogged down with over bloated bureaucracies that consume as much as 90% of available resources and with little or nothing left for development. We must address how long we want to travel with this culture of waste and to see if we can deliver better governance with a manageable architecture.

“The question of diversification is a point that advocates of restructuring have canvassed as it makes no sense for a country as vast in resources like Nigeria to depend on a mono-product economy. It is part of restructuring we are talking about and not an alternative to it.

“The restructuring package has a whole wide range of issues that have to do with justice administration, electoral system and its cost implications, conflicts arising from clash of cultures and how to deal with them to ensure peaceful co-existence.

Nigeria is fast falling apart and all genuine patriots have come to a consensus that we must restructure to arrest the drift,” said the group.