Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo,
Monday, in Abuja confessed that the federal government of Nigeria is yet to
deal effectively with the menace of corruption in the country. This against the
usual mantra of the present administration about fighting corruption.
Speaking at the 7th Presidential
Quarterly Business Forum for private sector stakeholders at the State House
conference centre, he said the administration has been unable to deal
decisively with corruption because it is endemic and has fought back on all
fronts.
The VP also criticised the
administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, alleging that while it
spent a paltry N14 billion on agriculture in 2014, N15 billion on
transportation, and only N153 billion on infrastructure in three years, it
shared N150 billion two weeks to the 2015 elections.
Osinbajo faulted the perceived
taciturn nature of Nigerians on the adverse effects of corruption on the
nation’s economy, saying the absence of unanimity on the impact of corruption
was dragging the country backwards and advocated a change of mindset.
He said: “I must ask again what
was wrong with the Nigerian economy and what do we need to do to correct the
flaws. There are several issues which many of you have already articulated, but
I want to talk about what I think is the biggest problem which, for some
reason, we hardly talk about when discussing our national economy.
“That is grand corruption in the
public finance space. Sometimes the way we talk about the Nigerian economy it
does appear as if it is the economy of say, Norway or somewhere, where all
things are equal.
“Even when we refer to what has
taken place in our economy, we almost sound as if this is in every sense a very
normal business environment, a very normal public finance environment. But that
is not the case.
“I do not think that any
consideration about our economic development can be properly and honestly done
without fully analysing corruption, especially grand corruption in the public
finance space.
“You see that despite the record
high levels of oil prices, very little was invested in infrastructure and a
record level of leakages were recorded in the past few years.
“That is the fundamental issue in
our economy. Corruption affects everything. It affects even judgment as to what
sort of infrastructure to put in place or whether infrastructure will ever be
completed.
“It is so fundamental that we
can’t even think of our economy without thinking of what to do about it.
“Sometimes when we talk about our
economy, we talk about the fact that we have relied on a single commodity and
that is one of the reasons we are where we are.
“Yes, that’s quite true but the
fact is that proceeds from that single commodity were regularly hijacked
consistently by a few. That is really the problem.
“If we had spent the proceeds
from that single commodity the way we ought to, we won’t be where we are today.
“Most of the proceeds went to
rent seekers in the industry. For example, I’m sure many of us are familiar
with the so-called Strategic Alliance Contract between Atlantic Energy Drilling
Concept Limited and NPDC. The promoters of the company made away with close to
$3 billion, almost a tenth of our reserves.
“There is no way if someone made
away with a tenth of your reserves that you will not have a major economic
shock. And if we don’t deal with it, if we don’t talk about it, how will we be
able to discuss our economy in an honest way with a view to ensuring that these
things do not happen again?
“In one single transaction, a few
weeks to the 2015 elections, the sums of N100 billion and $295 million were
just frittered away by a few.
“When you consider that in 2014,
as the Minister of Finance has said, oil prices averaged $110 a barrel but only
N99 billion was spent on the power, works and housing sectors.
“Yet, when we talk about the
economy we talk as if these are normal by every standard.
“Nobody should talk about the
economy when you have this kind of huge leakages and huge corruption.
Corruption completely makes nonsense of even what you are allocating to capital
projects.
“We saw from the presentation of
the Minister of Finance that N14 billion was spent on agriculture in 2014,
transportation got N15 billion, while infrastructure in three years got N153
billion, and yet in two weeks before the elections, N150 billion was shared.
“So if your total infrastructure
spending is N153 billion and you can share N150 billion, that is completely
incredible. That sort of thing doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world. So,
when we are talking about the economy, we must simply understand that, that is
the problem.”
On what the current
administration has done with the little resources available to it, the
vice-president said: “Today, with less revenue, we have increased capital
funding by 400 per cent as the finance minister has said, in power, works and
housing, and in defence, transportation, agriculture.
“If we want to do an analysis in
Nigeria, it is either fraudulent or ignorant if we do not bring money that
belongs to corruption to the masses. This is what distinguishes, in my own
respectful view, this administration from the other.
“I can say that with what I have
seen if you have a president who is not corrupt, 50 per cent of your financial
problems are over. This is what I have seen and I can demonstrate it with facts
and figures.
“If the president is corrupt, the
entire financial system will be compromised and that is what we have seen with
the figures we have just been presented.
“And that is something that is
absolutely important that we must take into account. So, I am not saying that
corruption under this administration has been completely dealt with, no
certainly not.
“Where corruption has become
systematic such as we have in our country today, you cannot deal with it in one
full fell swoop, it is not possible. In any event, you still have a lot of
corruption fighting back.
“The system fights back and it’s
both an internal and external fight back and you have to be steadfast and strategic
to win the battle.
“There’s no way that you would
have a system such as ours that has consistently thrived on corruption and the
proceeds of corruption that will give up and say, guys, the problem has been
solved.
“It is a system that has fed on
corruption and it affects all aspects of governance, so trying to deal with it
is certainly not a walk in the park.
“But I want to say that the task
has already begun and that task is being done consistently and I believe that
going forward in the next few years, no matter how we are criticised, if we
stick to policies, especially controlling excesses and corruption in public
finances, this country will make the kind of progress that it deserves to make
with all the resources at our disposal.
“If we stick to the policy of
ensuring that as far as public finance is concerned there is no impunity and
that we hold people to account, I’m absolutely confident that this country will
make the kind of progress we deserve to make as a nation.”
In attendance at the event were
the Ministers of Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu; Budget and National Planning, Udoma
Udoma; Finance, Kemi Adeosun; Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu
Enelamah; and the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters, Dipo
Dipeolu.
In their remarks, the private
sector participants spoke on a host of issues including the ongoing
construction on Apapa-Wharf Road, contractors that have abandoned work on the
Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the need to revive railways for ease of transporting
goods from ports, and the need to stop multiple checks at airports leading to
delay in movements.
They also spoke on the need for
the federal government to take an interest in education in order to stop
ill-trained people from manning critical sectors of the economy, as well as the
need to revive the Eastern ports comprising those in Onitsha, Warri, Port
Harcourt and Calabar.
(Thisday)
Comments
Post a Comment