Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has replied former Vice President and a
\npresidential aspirant, Atiku Abubakar, who attacked his position on
\nrestructuring.<\/p>\n
Read full statement:<\/p>\n
RE: OSINBAJO GOT IT WRONG ON RESTRUCTURING – ATIKU
\nDear Editor,<\/p>\n
Kindly permit me a response to a piece in your publication, titled
\n“Osinbajo got it wrong on Restructuring,” written, we are told, by my
\nillustrious predecessor in office, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.<\/p>\n
First, let me say that I really would have expected Alhaji Abubakar to at
\nleast get the full text of my comments before his public refutal of my
\nviews. But I understand; we are in that season where everything is seen as
\nfair game! He quoted me as saying that \u201cthe problem with our country is
\nnot a matter of restructuring\u2026 and we must not allow ourselves to be drawn
\ninto the argument that our problems stem from some geographic
\nre-structuring\u201d.<\/p>\n
Yes, I said so.<\/p>\n
As the quote shows, I rejected the notion that geographical restructuring
\nwas a solution to our national problems. Geographical restructuring is
\neither taking us back to regional governments or increasing the number of
\nStates that make up the Nigerian federation.<\/p>\n
As we all may recall, the 2014 National Conference actually recommended
\nthe creation of 18 more States. And I argued that, with several States
\nstruggling or unable to pay salaries, any further tinkering with our
\ngeographical structure would not benefit us.<\/p>\n
We should rather ask ourselves why the States are underperforming, revenue
\nand development wise. I gave the example of the Western Region (comprising
\neven more than what is now known as the South West Zone), where, without
\noil money, and using capitation tax and revenues from agriculture and
\nmining, the government funded free education for over 800,000 pupils in
\n1955, built several roads, farm settlements, industrial estates, the first
\nTV station in Africa, and the tallest building in Nigeria, while still
\ngiving up fifty percent of its earnings from mining and minerals for
\nallocation to the Federal Government and other regions.<\/p>\n
I then argued that what we required now was not geographical restructuring
\nbut good governance, honest management of public resources, deeper fiscal
\nFederalism, and a clear vision for development.<\/p>\n
On the issue of deeper fiscal Federalism or restructuring, I explained how
\nthe then Lagos State Government, led by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, decided
\nto fight for greater autonomy of States.<\/p>\n
As Attorney-General at the time, it was my duty and privilege to lead the
\nlegal team against the then Federal government, in our arguments at the
\nSupreme Court. I am sure that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar would remember these
\ncases on greater autonomy for States that I cite below, as he was Vice
\nPresident of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at the time.<\/p>\n
At the Supreme Court, we won several landmark decisions on restructuring
\nNigeria through deeper fiscal federalism, some of which our late converts
\nto the concept, now wish to score political points on.<\/p>\n
It was our counter-claims alongside those of other littoral States, that
\nfirst addressed so comprehensively the issue of resource control. We
\nagreed with the oil producing States that they had a right to control
\ntheir resources. We argued, though unsuccessfully, that the Ports of Lagos
\nwere also a resource, which should enable Lagos State, in the worst case,
\nto be paid the derivation percentage for proceeds of its natural
\nresources. Years later, we also filed an action at the Supreme Court
\narguing that the Value Added Tax, being a consumption tax, should
\nexclusively belong to the States.<\/p>\n
On the issue of who, between the Federal and State governments, should
\nhave authority to grant building permits and other development control
\npermits, the Supreme Court, by a slim majority, ruled in our favour. It
\nheld that, even with respect to federal land, States had exclusive
\nauthority to grant building or other developments control permits.<\/p>\n
In 2004, we created 37 new local governments in Lagos State. We believed
\nthat we had a Constitutional right to do so and that in any event, a State
\nshould have a right to create its own administrative units. Several other
\nStates joined us and created theirs.<\/p>\n
The Federal government\u2019s response was to seize the funds meant for our
\nlocal governments, thus strangulating States like Lagos, which had created
\nnew local governments. We challenged this at the Supreme Court. The court
\nheld that the President had no right under the Constitution to withhold or
\nseize funds meant for the States. The allocations were not a gift of the
\nFederal Government to the States. They were the Constitutional right of
\nthe States and local governments.<\/p>\n
The court also agreed that States had a Constitutional right to create
\nlocal governments, pursuant to section 8 of\u00a0 the Constitution, but that
\nthe creation remained inchoate until the National Assembly, by resolution,
\namended the existing list of local governments to capture the newly
\ncreated LGs.<\/p>\n
In response, we created by State Law, Local Council Development Areas
\n(LCDAs), to accommodate the newly created Local Government Councils until
\nsuch a time as the National Assembly would complete the process. But the
\nLagos State Government took up the challenge to re-engineer its revenue
\nservice, making it autonomous. With innovative management, tax collection
\nin Lagos became more efficient, and tax revenues continued to grow
\ngeometrically. Today, the State earns more IGR than 30 States of Nigeria
\nput together!<\/p>\n
Further, we contested the attempts of the then Federal Government to
\ncreate supervisory authority over the Finances of Local Governments by the
\nsigning into law of the Monitoring of Revenue Allocation to Local
\nGovernments Act, 2005. The Supreme Court also ruled in our favour,
\nstriking down many provisions of the law that sought to give the Federal
\ngovernment control over local government funding.<\/p>\n
I have been an advocate, both in court and outside, of fiscal Federalism
\nand stronger State Governments. I have argued in favour of State Police,
\nfor the simple reason that policing is a local function. You simply cannot
\neffectively police Nigeria from Abuja. Only recently, in my speech at the
\nAnniversary of the Lagos State House of Assembly, I made the point that
\nstronger, more autonomous States would more efficiently eradicate poverty.
\nSo I do not believe that geographical restructuring is an answer to
\nNigeria\u2019s socio economic circumstances. That would only result in greater
\nadministrative costs. But there can be no doubt that we need deeper fiscal
\nFederalism and good governance.<\/p>\n
Alhaji Atiku\u2019s concept of restructuring is understandably vague, because
\nhe seeks to cover every aspect of human existence in that definition. He
\nsays it means a \u201ccultural revolution\u201d. Of course, he does not bother to
\nunravel this concept. He says we need a structure that gives everyone an
\nopportunity to work, a private sector driven economy. Yes, I agree.\u00a0 These
\nare critical pillars of our Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP),
\nincluding our Ease of Doing Business Programme.<\/p>\n
If, however, this is what he describes as restructuring, then it is clear
\nthat he has mixed up all the issues of good governance and diversification
\nof the economy with the argument on restructuring.<\/p>\n
Good governance involves, inter alia, transparency and prudence in public
\nfinance. It involves social justice, investing in the poor, and jobs for
\nyoung people; which explains our School Feeding Programme, providing a
\nmeal a day to over 9 million public school children in 25 States as of
\ntoday. Our NPower is now employing 500,000 graduates; our TraderMoni that
\nwill be giving microcredit to 2 million petty traders; our Conditional
\nCash Transfers giving monthly grants to over 400,000 of the poorest in
\nNigeria. The plan is to cover a million households.<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, Alhaji Atiku leaves out the elephant in the room –
\ncorruption. And how grand corruption, fueled by a rentier economic
\nstructure that benefits those who can use political positions or access to
\neither loot the treasury or get favorable concessions to enrich
\nthemselves. This was a main part of my presentations the Minnesota Town
\nHall meeting.<\/p>\n
In arguing for good governance,\u00a0 I made the point that our greatest
\nproblem was corruption. I pointed out that grand corruption, namely the
\nunbelievable looting of the treasury by simply making huge cash
\nwithdrawals in local and foreign currency, was the first travesty that
\nPresident Buhari stopped.<\/p>\n
I showed the OPEC figures from oil revenues since 1990. In four years from
\n2010 to 2014 the PDP government earned the highest oil revenues in
\nNigeria\u2019s history, USD381.9billion. By contrast the Buhari Adminstration
\nhas earned USD121 billion from May 2015 to June 2018, less than 1\/3 of
\nwhat Jonathan Administration earned at the same period in that
\nadministration\u2019s life. Despite earning so much less, we are still able to
\ninvest more in infrastructure than any government in Nigeria\u2019s history.
\nThe difference is good governance, and fiscal prudence.<\/p>\n
In the final analysis, restructuring in whatever shape or form, will not
\nmean much if our political leaders see public resources as an extension of
\ntheir bank accounts. This, I believe, is the real issue.<\/p>\n
Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN
\nVice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria
\n4th September, 2018<\/p>\n
Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has replied former Vice President and a presidential aspirant, Atiku Abubakar, who attacked his position on restructuring. Read full statement: RE: OSINBAJO GOT IT WRONG ON…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n