Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday restated his support for the creation of state police in the country.
Osinbajo said this was part of the restructuring that Nigeria needed, stressing that more powers should be given to states to make them financially independent.
Osinbajo said this in Lagos in a lecture titled, “Restructuring and the Nigerian federation,” which he delivered as part activities marking the 40th anniversary of the Association of Friends.
The VP said, “On the security question, we must establish state police; there’s no question, at all, about that.
“Today, the challenges that we are facing are enormous. A federation of 200 million people and a state cannot control its own police; there must be state police.
“That doesn’t mean that there will not be federal police. The federal police will remain for borders security, elections, to check smuggling and so on.
“But we must still have state police and community police.
“Today, many of the state governments pay the police. That just shows you that whether we like it or not, it is the same governors that are even paying anyway.
“We cannot say that a governor is the chief security officer of a state when he has no control over security in his state. So, there is a strong case to be made.”
Osinbajo’s position on state police is at variance with President Muhammadu Buhari’s position on the issue.
Buhari had in an interview with the Hausa Service of the Voice of America, reportedly said that, “We must carefully look at the position of the nation’s constitution on the issue of state police before we take a final decision on the matter. If the constitution allows state police, so be it. But don’t forget that many times the Federal Government gave out what we referred to as bailouts to state governments for the payment of workers’ salaries. How many states can pay salaries promptly? And you want to add more financial burden on the states? It is not proper to employ a person, train him in how to handle weapons and then refuse to pay him – you can imagine what would happen in such situation.”
On Monday, Osinbajo argued that Nigeria could no longer rely on crude oil as its sole source of income, stressing that the states must be strengthened to be financially independent.
He said the next two decades would be decisive for Nigeria, as the country could either become “one of the world’s leading economies or we could be one of the greatest socio-economic disasters in history”.
He noted that with an annual growth of three per cent, Nigeria’s population had been projected to be third largest by 2050.
He said the problem of rising population in the midst of mass poverty had been compounded by a rise in the activities of terrorists as well as climate change, “leading to desertification at a frightening rate, fertile land is shrinking and the struggle for pasture and water is getting more desperate and deadly”.
He said, “I have argued elsewhere that the commonly held notion of restructuring, meaning geographical restructuring will not achieve much.
“By that, I mean that the suggestion that we should go back to the old regions or create more states will not solve the problem.
“What we need are stronger states. Stronger states within a federation can with the critical mass of resources they aggregate solve the four problems I had highlighted above.”
He, again, launched a fresh attack against the Goodluck Jonathan administration, saying it plunged the country into debt due to grand corruption and impunity.
The VP said he was shocked to find that $292m (about N70bn) was moved out from the Central Bank of Nigeria in a single day, “without any contract or any real explanation”.
According to him, that dollar haul from the CBN left the apex bank dollar-broke for two weeks.
He said it was unimaginable that despite earning $381bn from crude sale between 2010 and 2014 – the highest that the country had ever earned – the nation’s external reserves fell to $30bn by 2014 and the Goodluck Jonathan administration left behind a debt of $63.806bn.
He noted that between 2010 and 2015, Nigeria’s debt jumped from $35,093.10bn to $63,806.53bn.
He said, “What do these figures show? They show that when oil prices were at the highest between 2010 and 2014 the government was borrowing heavily.
“From 2010 to 2014, debts moved from $35bn to $63bn. When we assumed office in 2015, the debt that the previous government left was $63bn.
“Today, three and half years later, the debt is $73bn.
“There are two reasons why despite high earnings we are poorer – the first is grand corruption and mismanagement of resources. And there is a difference between grand corruption and ordinary corruption.
“Grand corruption is directly stealing from the CBN, directly taking money from the treasury without any contract, no pretences; there’s no caution, you just take money. That was going on and I will give you several examples.
“When I got to the office as Vice-President, I couldn’t believe it. In one day, $292m was signed out and it disappeared. After that period, for two weeks, the Central Bank of Nigeria did not have cash dollar – $292m without any real explanation! We later discovered what became of the money.
“On another occasion, N60bn was moved out ostensibly for security purposes; but we know what happened.” Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com