LETTER TO THE EDITOR, PREMIUM TIMES, BY PROFESSOR YEMIOSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA (Sept 4,2018)
RE: OSINBAJO GOT IT WRONG ON RESTRUCTURING - ATIKU
Dear Editor, Kindly permit me a response to a piece in your publication,titled “Osinbajo got it wrong on Restructuring,” written, we are told, by myillustrious predecessor in office, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. First, let me say that I really would have expected Alhaji Abubakarto at least get the full text of my comments before his public refutal of myviews. But I understand; we are in that season where everything is seen as fairgame! He quoted me as saying that “the problem with our country is not a matterof restructuring… and we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into the argumentthat our problems stem from some geographic re-structuring”. Yes, I said so. As the quote shows, I rejected the notion that geographicalrestructuring was a solution to our national problems. Geographicalrestructuring is either taking us back to regional governments or increasingthe number of States that make up the Nigerian federation. As we all may recall, the 2014 National Conference actuallyrecommended the creation of 18 more States. And I argued that, with severalStates struggling or unable to pay salaries, any further tinkering with ourgeographical structure would not benefit us. We should rather ask ourselves why the States areunderperforming, revenue and development wise. I gave the example of theWestern Region (comprising even more than what is now known as the South WestZone), where, without oil money, and using capitation tax and revenues fromagriculture and mining, the government funded free education for over 800,000pupils in 1955, built several roads, farm settlements, industrial estates, thefirst TV station in Africa, and the tallest building in Nigeria, while stillgiving up fifty percent of its earnings from mining and minerals for allocationto the Federal Government and other regions. I then argued that what we required now was not geographicalrestructuring but good governance, honest management of public resources,deeper fiscal Federalism, and a clear vision for development. On the issue of deeper fiscal Federalism or restructuring, Iexplained how the then Lagos State Government, led by Asiwaju Bola AhmedTinubu, decided to fight for greater autonomy of States. As Attorney-General at the time, it was my duty andprivilege to lead the legal team against the then Federal government, in ourarguments at the Supreme Court. I am sure that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar wouldremember these cases on greater autonomy for States that I cite below, as hewas Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at the time. At the Supreme Court, we won several landmark decisions onrestructuring Nigeria through deeper fiscal federalism, some of which our lateconverts to the concept, now wish to score political points on. It was our counter-claims alongside those of other littoralStates, that first addressed so comprehensively the issue of resource control.We agreed with the oil producing States that they had a right to control theirresources. We argued, though unsuccessfully, that the Ports of Lagos were alsoa resource, which should enable Lagos State, in the worst case, to be paid thederivation percentage for proceeds of its natural resources. Years later, wealso filed an action at the Supreme Court arguing that the Value Added Tax,being a consumption tax, should exclusively belong to the States. On the issue of who, between the Federal and Stategovernments, should have authority to grant building permits and otherdevelopment control permits, the Supreme Court, by a slim majority, ruled inour favour. It held that, even with respect to federal land, States hadexclusive authority to grant building or other developments control permits. In 2004, we created 37 new local governments in Lagos State.We believed that we had a Constitutional right to do so and that in any event,a State should have a right to create its own administrative units. Severalother States joined us and created theirs. The Federal government’s response was to seize the fundsmeant for our local governments, thus strangulating States like Lagos, whichhad created new local governments. We challenged this at the Supreme Court. Thecourt held that the President had no right under the Constitution to withholdor seize funds meant for the States. The allocations were not a gift of theFederal Government to the States. They were the Constitutional right of theStates and local governments. The court also agreed that States had a Constitutional rightto create local governments, pursuant to section 8 of the Constitution, butthat the creation remained inchoate until the National Assembly, by resolution,amended the existing list of local governments to capture the newly createdLGs. In response, we created by State Law, Local CouncilDevelopment Areas (LCDAs), to accommodate the newly created Local GovernmentCouncils until such a time as the National Assembly would complete the process.But the Lagos State Government took up the challenge to re-engineer its revenueservice, making it autonomous. With innovative management, tax collection inLagos became more efficient, and tax revenues continued to grow geometrically.Today, the State earns more IGR than 30 States of Nigeria put together! Further, we contested the attempts of the then FederalGovernment to create supervisory authority over the Finances of LocalGovernments by the signing into law of the Monitoring of Revenue Allocation toLocal Governments Act, 2005. The Supreme Court also ruled in our favour,striking down many provisions of the law that sought to give the Federalgovernment control over local government funding. I have been an advocate, both in court and outside, offiscal Federalism and stronger State Governments. I have argued in favour ofState Police, for the simple reason that policing is a local function. Yousimply cannot effectively police Nigeria from Abuja. Only recently, in myspeech at the Anniversary of the Lagos State House of Assembly, I made thepoint that stronger, more autonomous States would more efficiently eradicatepoverty. So I do not believe that geographical restructuring is an answer toNigeria’s socio economic circumstances. That would only result in greateradministrative costs. But there can be no doubt that we need deeper fiscalFederalism and good governance. Alhaji Atiku’s concept of restructuring is understandablyvague, because he seeks to cover every aspect of human existence in thatdefinition. He says it means a “cultural revolution”. Of course, he does notbother to unravel this concept. He says we need a structure that gives everyonean opportunity to work, a private sector driven economy. Yes, I agree. Theseare critical pillars of our Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), includingour Ease of Doing Business Programme. If, however, this is what he describes as restructuring,then it is clear that he has mixed up all the issues of good governance anddiversification of the economy with the argument on restructuring. Good governance involves, inter alia, transparency andprudence in public finance. It involves social justice, investing in the poor,and jobs for young people; which explains our School Feeding Programme,providing a meal a day to over 9 million public school children in 25 States asof today. Our NPower is now employing 500,000 graduates; our TraderMoni thatwill be giving microcredit to 2 million petty traders; our Conditional CashTransfers giving monthly grants to over 400,000 of the poorest in Nigeria. Theplan is to cover a million households. Surprisingly, Alhaji Atiku leaves out the elephant in theroom – corruption. And how grand corruption, fueled by a rentier economicstructure that benefits those who can use political positions or access toeither loot the treasury or get favorable concessions to enrich themselves.This was a main part of my presentations the Minnesota Town Hall meeting. In arguing for good governance, I made the point that ourgreatest problem was corruption. I pointed out that grand corruption, namelythe unbelievable looting of the treasury by simply making huge cash withdrawalsin local and foreign currency, was the first travesty that President Buharistopped. I showed the OPEC figures from oil revenues since 1990. Infour years from 2010 to 2014 the PDP government earned the highest oil revenuesin Nigeria’s history, USD381.9billion. By contrast the Buhari Administrationhas earned USD121 billion from May 2015 to June 2018, less than 1/3 of whatJonathan Administration earned at the same period in that administration’slife. Despite earning so much less, we are still able to invest more ininfrastructure than any government in Nigeria’s history. The difference is goodgovernance, and fiscal prudence. In the final analysis, restructuring in whatever shape orform, will not mean much if our political leaders see public resources as anextension of their bank accounts.
This, I believe, is the real issue.
