{"id":21309,"date":"2019-10-05T21:37:14","date_gmt":"2019-10-05T21:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=21309"},"modified":"2019-10-05T21:37:14","modified_gmt":"2019-10-05T21:37:14","slug":"devolution-of-more-power-to-states-enables-them-to-control-more-of-their-resources-says-osinbajo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=21309","title":{"rendered":"Devolution of more power to States enables them to control more of their resources, says Osinbajo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Laolu Akande<\/strong>, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Office of the Vice President

NIGERIA can become a stronger and more prosperous nation if states have more powers, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.

Prof. Osinbajo stated this while speaking at the 59th Independence Anniversary Lecture at the Island Club, Lagos, on Friday.

The Vice President, who titled his lecture \u201cthe whole is only as great as the sum of its parts,\u201d said Nigeria\u2019s population and diverse ethnic groups has necessitated that states in the country be strengthened to enable them contribute more to national productivity and development.

Prof. Osinbajo stated that this can be achieved with \u201cstronger, more autonomous States that are able to generate and control more of their resources.\u201d

According to the Vice President,\u00a0the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is ensuring that states collaborate more with the Federal Government on different initiatives to improve visionary governance in the country.

\u201cThe most important transformative change we can make in Nigeria is to lift the majority of our people out of deprivation by speedily creating wealth and opportunity leading to the eradication of poverty,\u201d he said.

He further said that \u201cThe nation cannot be wealthy when its component parts \u2013 the states \u2013 are poor. The standard of living of the federation depends on the standard of living of people who live in the states. In other words, the federation can only be as rich as its richest state and as strong as its strongest state. Our national indices merely aggregate the realities of our weaknesses and strengths as present in all our constituent units. Consequently, we can only build a stronger and more prosperous nation by building stronger and more prosperous states.\u201d

He said, \u201cBuilding stronger states means ensuring the devolution of more power to the states, enabling them to control more of their resources and make more of their own administrative decisions such as the creation of Local Governments, the establishment of state and community police forces as well as state correctional facilities; creation of special courts and tribunals of equivalent jurisdiction to high courts. The point I am making is that states must have more powers and more rights.\u201d

The Vice President stated that, \u201cThe challenges confronting us now are about strengthening internal coherence and cohesion. It is about moving from affirmations of unity to the achievement of synergy in which the sum of our strengths exceeds the totality of our constituent parts.\u201d

He noted that, \u201cOpportunities for smart and visionary governance abound. So, for example, while states may not be able to right now establish their police forces, they can collaborate with the federal government on initiatives such as community policing which also revolves around the idea of localized law enforcement. Our administration is currently pursuing this option. When we set our minds to solving problems, we will find that what is truly possible is not as distant from the ideal that we seek.\u201d

The Vice President further noted that Nigerians, despite differences, must draw inspiration from its history of a common shared belief, in order to attain the quest for collective progress and continued unity.

He said, \u201cIn order to do so, we must draw inspiration from the deep wells of our history. The founding fathers of our republic \u2013 Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello. These three differed on many things but shared a clear belief in the Nigeria\u2019s boundless capacity as a united country. Regardless of their keen rivalry, they agreed on the crucial necessity of Nigeria staying united despite the many centrifugal pressures that buffeted the young nation. On this matter of unity, their differences were those of degree rather than category.

\u201cEach of them occupied different niches on the spectrum of national integration but they all shared the view that the ideal situation was one in which a united and prosperous Nigeria took its rightful place in the world as the most populous black nation on Earth and as the foremost black power.

\u201cFrom the foregoing, it is clear that the founding fathers were of one mind as far as Nigeria\u2019s world historic significance was concerned. They also recognized that her ability to fulfil her destiny was dependent on her continued unity.\u201d

The Vice President added that, \u201cThe point of this excursion into history is to show that strong sub nationals led by visionary leadership is what it takes to develop the Nation. What we require today is stronger, more autonomous States able to generate and control more of their resources and visionary leadership.\u201d

Speaking during a Q&A session, Prof. Osinbajo added that the Buhari administration will continue its fight against corruption.

\u201cTwo governors have been convicted for corruption, and they are in jail today. It took almost 10 years because our legal system is extremely slow, but we achieved it,\u201d he said.

\u201cThe other thing I think we have to take note of is the fact that corruption fights back, and we also as citizens have to much more up and doing, because corruption fights back. They throw mud at everybody, give the impression that, \u201ceverybody is corrupt.\u201d

\u201cIf we don\u2019t control corruption, it\u2019s the worst possible cancer that any nation can have, and as we can see from anything else, it just destroys a country by installments.\u201d

Prof. Osinbajo stated that he will continue to give his best in service to the country under the Buhari administration.

\u201cI intend to do everything that is necessary, everything that I can to ensure that we achieve the promises that we made and to ensure that we achieve the kind of country that we want to achieve. And I will do that every day, every minute, for as long and God gives me life and opportunity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Office of the Vice President NIGERIA can become a stronger and more prosperous nation if states have more powers, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN. Prof. Osinbajo stated this while speaking at the 59th Independence Anniversary Lecture at the Island Club, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":13107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21309\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}