The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has come under heavy criticism from the pan-Yoruba ethnic organization – Afenifere as the group has slammed the political office holder describing him as a disappointment to the whole of South-West.
The Afenifere group’s opinion was informed by the recent statement made by the Vice President on restructuring Nigeria. Recall that the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo had said the move to restructure the nation will make no difference.
Further to his point, Osinbajo had further argued that all Nigeria needs is to diversify into agriculture as states, even if given half of the Federal Government’s resources would not make significant difference to the current state of the economy.
The Afenifere in a statement issued on Monday signed the National Publicity Secretary, Yinka Odumakin advised the Vice President to be sure of his utterances before making them.
Odumakin in the statement maintained that Osinbajo was wrong to have engaged in the reductionist argument which narrows the whole issue to taking more money from the Federal Government to the states.
The statement noted: “Yes, fiscal federalism is part of the argument but the issue goes beyond the monthly Federal Allocation Committee.”
The statement further pointed out bureaucracy in the Federal, State and Local government which aims to 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 statement added: “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 has 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.
“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.”
Further driving home his point, Odumakin argued that the whole package of restructuring comprises of issues dealing 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.
“Yes there is a minority that is insisting that we must continue the way we are just like the minders of some empires that have disappeared from the world map did. The Vice-President is free to cast his lot with this group even when silence could have been golden but he should at least try to acquaint himself with the issues so people are not wondering what are we talking and what is he saying”.
He added: “We use this development to advise all those who seek high offices to ensure they are not far from issues that shape their political environment and pay due attention to civic education”.