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Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s vice president.

By Chukwudi Abiandu (With Agency Reports)

Against the barrage of recent criticisms trailing the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration on the issue of restructuring in favour of true federal practice in Nigeria, as opposed to the currently skewed federalism, the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has restated that he is an advocate of fiscal federalism Elder statesman state governments and state police.
The Vice President had in recent times come under fire by elder statesmen who felt appalled by his stance on restructuring. Elder statesman, lawyer, Awoist and Afenifere chieftain, Chief Ayo Adebanjo once stated in reaction to Osinbajo’s stance on restructuring. He said: “Osinbajo is a confusionist. He is just trying to be politically correct. How can a man of his knowledge and intellect claim at this time that he doesn’t know what restructuring means? He doesn’t know what is restructuring and he took the Federal Government to court when he was the Attorney-General of Lagos State for not paying them their local government allocations? On which authority did he do that? He does not know what is restructuring when there is restructuring on the manifesto of APC? He does not know what is restructuring even after they set up a committee under el-Rufai? Osinbajo must be told that he is a disappointment to many of us, who hold him in high esteem and those of us who know his background and his knowledge and intellect.
“Osinbajo shouldn’t turn himself to the spokesman of those who are doing unconstitutional things in this country. He as a lawyer sat down as the vice president and the president was saying the rule of law is subject to national security. It doesn’t give the man any credit and it doesn’t do us, the Yoruba, who believe the man is representing us, any proud. Osinbajo should keep quiet if he cannot defend what is right or if he cannot oppose what is wrong.”
Chief Femi Okurounmu did not spare the Vice President in his comment. Okurounmu said: “Osinbajo is just trying to confuse the issue to obscure his having to follow his leader blindly. Osinbajo is a confused man and he is trying to confuse everybody, but I am sure people who truly understand what restructuring is all about are not confused. Atiku was very clear about what he meant by restructuring. Those of us who have been shouting restructuring in the last three or four decades are not in any doubt about what we mean by restructuring. It is Osinbajo whose parents have also been shouting restructuring, but because he wants to be in the good books of President Muhammadu Buhari that is why he is trying to confuse issues and pretend as if he doesn’t know what restructuring is all about. So, Nigerians should not be deceived by people like Osinbajo. Restructuring means one and only one thing: go back to true federalism, the proper federalism we had between 1960 and 1966 before the coup. Nigeria practised true federalism. It was on the basis of that that we got our independence in 1960 and the three major leaders at the time – the Saudauna, Awolowo and Azikiwe – were all in agreement with it. It was the military that distorted it when they took over.
“So, we are saying we should go back to that proper federalism that we practised before. Osinbajo was not too young at the time to understand what we had before 1966. He is just trying to confuse issues and to mess everybody up, but he has only succeeded in messing himself up.”
But while delivering the 40th anniversary lecture of the Association of Friends On Monday, 13/11/2018 on the theme: “Restructuring and the Nigerian Federation”, the vice president insisted on his position that that good governance was what Nigeria needed rather than geographical restructuring.
He stated: “I have been an advocate, both in court and outside, of fiscal federalism and stronger state governments.
“ I have argued in favour of state police, for the simple reason that policing is a local function.
“You simply cannot effectively police Nigeria from Abuja; only recently, I made a point that stronger, more autonomous states would effectively eradicate poverty.
“ So, I do not believe that geographical restructuring is an answer to Nigeria’s socio-economic circumstances.
“That would only result in greater administrative costs; but there can be no doubt that we need deeper fiscal federalism and good governance.”
He argued that state governments had enormous constitutional powers which they should harness to better their fortunes.
The vice president said that the Supreme Court held that states had a constitutional right to create local governments, pursuant to Section 8 of the Constitution.
He said that the creation remained incomplete until the National Assembly, by resolution, amended the existing list of local governments to capture the newly created councils.
Osinbajo said further that the apex court ruled also that with respect to federal land, the state had exclusive authority to grant authority to for building or developmental control permits.
He said further that the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Lagos State Government as it struck down many provisions of the law that sought to give the Federal Government control over local government funding.
Osinbajo said that pursuant to the Supreme Court ruling, the Lagos State Government created by State Law, Local Government Council Development Areas (LCDAs) to activate the newly created local government councils, until such a time the National Assembly would complete the process.
He said that the Lagos State Government at that time took the challenge which resulted in the state earning more Internally Generated Revenue(IGR) than 30 Nigerian states put together.
Osinbajo said it was wrong to mix up all the issues of good governance and diversification of the economy with the argument on corruption.
“Good governance involves inter alia, transparency and prudence in public finance.
“ It involves social justice, investing in the poor, jobs for young people, which explains our School Feeding Programme, providing a meal per day to over nine million pupils in 25 states today.
“Our N-Power is now employing 500, 000 graduates; our TraderMoni that will be giving microcredit to two million petty traders; our Conditional Cash Transfers giving monthly grants to over 400,000 of the poorest in Nigeria.
“ The plan is to cover over a million households.”
He said that in arguing for good governance, Nigeria’s greatest problem was grand corruption.
The vice president described corruption as the unbelievable looting of the treasury by simply making huge cash withdrawals in local and foreign currencies–a travesty which President Muhammadu Buhari stopped.
According to him, the restructuring Nigeria needs is the restructuring of governance in such a manner as to eliminate corruption and create an enabling environment for growth and investments in infrastructure, education, nutrition and better sanitation.
Earlier in his address, Alhaji Oluropo Owolabi, said that the topic of the lecture could not have come at a better time.
He said that in recent times, restructuring had dominated the nation’s political discourse; hence the choice of the vice president, a professor of law for the lecture.
Owolabi said that the association was borne out of a vision of some young men, eight of them who decided in 1978 to concretise their fledgeling relationship and dominance of social space into a sustainable institution.