Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has asked Vice-President Yemi
\nOsinbajo to stop \u201cthis continuous prevarication, this approbation and
\nreprobation\u201d and stick to whether he is in support of restructuring or
\nnot.<\/p>\n
The two men have exchanged a series of statements over their understanding
\nof the concept of restructuring.<\/p>\n
While Abubakar accused Osinbajo of \u201clacking appreciation of the core
\ntenets of the concept\u201d, the vice-president said Abubakar\u2019s \u201cconcept of
\nrestructuring is understandably vague\u201d.<\/p>\n
In his latest response, Abubakar said the vice-president\u2019s description of
\nhis understanding of restructuring as vague is \u201cunfortunate\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said while Osinbajo could change his stance on the call for
\nrestructuring, he should not \u201cuse one finger to hide behind semantics\u201d.<\/p>\n
According to the former number two citizen, \u201ctrue progressives know that
\nNigeria needs to be restructured and restructured soon\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy advice to the Vice President is that he should choose whether he is
\nfor restructuring or whether he is against it and stick to his choice.
\nThis continuous prevarication, this approbation and reprobation, helps no
\none, least of all true progressives who know that Nigeria needs to be
\nrestructured and restructured soon,\u201d Abubakar said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the Vice President to say \u201cAlhaji Atiku\u2019s concept of restructuring is \u201cI am hard pressed to see how these clear and specific ideas can be Read the full statement below<\/p>\n My attention has been drawn to a letter written in response to an essay on Faced with an avalanche of public condemnation for his 360-degree turn on I have been in the forefront of the discourse on restructuring since the Mr. Osinbajo said, \u201cthe problem with our country is not a matter of For the Vice President to say \u201cAlhaji Atiku\u2019s concept of restructuring is I have been very clear, detailed, and unambiguous about my ideas for \u00b7\u00a0 Devolution of powers and resources to the states.<\/p>\n \u00b7\u00a0 Matching grants from the federal government to the states to help them \u00b7\u00a0 The privatisation of unviable federal Government-owned assets.<\/p>\n \u00b7\u00a0 A truly free market economy driven by the laws of demand and supply.<\/p>\n \u00b7\u00a0 Replacing state of origin with state of residence, and<\/p>\n \u00b7\u00a0 Passing the PIGD so that our oil and gas sector will run as a business I am hard pressed to see how these clear and specific ideas can be Be that as it may, in his letter, Vice President Osinbajo then jumps from \u201cGood governance involves, inter alia, transparency and prudence in public While what Professor Osinbajo says may be true or false, I must say that If the Vice President cannot see that losing 7.9 million jobs in 21 months Professor Osinbajo also harps on \u201cprudence in public finance\u201d, but he Finally, while the Vice President is not exactly correct when he says \u201cIn My response to Vice President Osinbajo is that while I was Vice President My advice to the Vice President is that he should choose whether he is for Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has asked Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo to stop \u201cthis continuous prevarication, this approbation and reprobation\u201d and stick to whether he is in support of restructuring or not.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nunderstandably vague, because he seeks to cover every aspect of human
\n<\/span>existence in that definition\u201d, is most unfortunate.<\/p>\n
\ndescribed as \u2018vague\u2019. One would have thought that if anything is vague, it
\nwould be the idea of \u2018geographic restructuring\u2019 whose meaning is hanging
\nin the air.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nrestructuring authored by me.<\/p>\n
\nthe concept of restructuring, it is understandable that the Vice
\nPresident, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has written to douse the tension his
\ncomments created. However, in doing so, the Vice President should not
\nattempt to revise history by saying that he spoke against \u2018geographic
\nrestructuring\u2019.<\/p>\n
\n1995 Abacha Constitutional Conference and to the best of my knowledge,
\nthere has not been any term like \u2018geographic restructuring\u2019. It is a
\nstrange concept, not only because it is not what the restructuring debate
\nis all about, but also because the words of the Vice President, which
\nprompted my response were clear, unambiguous and unequivocal.<\/p>\n
\nrestructuring\u201d. That I disagree with and so do many other Nigerians. If
\nthe Vice President has changed his stance, I welcome it, but we should not
\nuse one finger to hide behind semantics.<\/p>\n
\nunderstandably vague, because he seeks to cover every aspect of human
\n<\/span>existence in that definition\u201d, is most unfortunate.<\/p>\n
\nrestructuring. At several occasions, including, but not limited to my
\nspeeches at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House),
\nand at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (made in April this year and
\nJuly 2017, respectively), I gave a very clear and concise ideas about
\nadministrative, political and economic restructuring as follows:<\/p>\n
\ngrow their internally generated revenue position.<\/p>\n
\nwith minimal governmental interference.<\/p>\n
\ndescribed as \u2018vague\u2019. One would have thought that if anything is vague, it
\nwould be the idea of \u2018geographic restructuring\u2019 whose meaning is hanging
\nin the air.<\/p>\n
\nthe topic of restructuring and goes on to say:<\/p>\n
\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
\n<\/span>Nigeria. The plan is to cover a million households.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nhis dovetailing into the area of the economy does not explain certain
\nfacts such as the fact that the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics reported in
\nDecember 2017 that Nigeria lost 7.9 million jobs in the 21 month period
\nunder review.<\/p>\n
\nwhile creating 500,000 jobs is a deficit, then I do not know what to say
\nto the honourable professor.<\/p>\n
\nfails to show the wisdom in sharing out $322 million of Abacha funds to
\nthe poor only to take a loan of $328 million from the Chinese the very
\nnext month. Many Nigerians, myself included, see this as imprudence.<\/p>\n
\nfour years from 2010 to 2014 the PDP government earned the highest oil
\nrevenues in Nigeria\u2019s history, USD381.9billion. By contrast the Buhari
\n<\/span>Administration has earned USD121 billion from May 2015 to June 2018\u201d, let
\nus for the sake of argument say that he is right.<\/p>\n
\nof the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2006, Nigeria\u2019s Economic Management
\nTeam, of which I was a prominent member, paid off Nigeria\u2019s entire foreign
\ndebt of $30 billion, at a time when we were earning one third of what the
\nBuhari administration is currently earning from oil. So such arguments are
\npuerile at best.<\/p>\n
\nrestructuring or whether he is against it and stick to his choice.<\/p>\n