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Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says Nigeria’s economic advancement is hinged on the success of President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-graft policy initiatives.
Speaking at the 7th Presidential Quarterly Business Forum for Private Sector stakeholders at State House Conference Center, (the old Banquet Hall), Presidential Villa, Abuja, Osinbajo who was reacting to complaints of slow pace of works on public infrastructure under the current administration, especially the 2nd Niger bridge, Tin Can Island road construction work, Lagos / Ibadan rail project, blamed the collapse of infrastructure on massive looting of public funds by previous governments.
Stakeholders at the quarterly business forum had X-rayed infrastructure development under the current administration and viewed Tin Can Island grid lock and poor public transportation policies as major disincentive to economic activities, calling on the government to open up the eastern ports as alternatives to the Lagos ports.
But Osinbajo, in a comparative analysis of the economic policies of the previous administration and that of the Buhari regime, noted that previous administrations were characterized by massive looting of public treasury, over dependence on single commodity and ineffective policies that encouraged the looting of public funds to the detriment of infrastructure development.
He chided the economic policy that allowed for the spending of only N14 billion on agriculture and N15 billion on transportation in 2014, while the same government doled out N150 billion within two weeks to the elections in 2015.
“For example, I’m sure many of us our familiar with the so called Strategic Alliance Contract with the NNPC and NDDC, the promoters of the companies 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 a real honest way with a view to ensuring that these things do not happen again.”
Leakages in public sector policies, according to him, promoted such massive looting despite records of high levels of oil prices, with very little invested in infrastructure.
“This is the fundamental issue in our economy. Corruption affects everything. It affects even judgement as to what sort of infrastructure to put in place or whether infrastructure will ever be complete. It is so fundamental that l can’t even think of our economy without thinking of what to do about it.”
Osinbajo however admitted that corruption has not been wiped away.
“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 and you have to be steadfast and strategic to win the battle.”
Tony Ailemen, Abuja
