Former vice-president Atiku Abubakar has through a new publication lectured professor Yemi Osinbajo, the vice president of Nigeria, on the ‘concept of restructuring’.

Atiku also accused the vice president of attempting to revise history.

In the new publication, the former vice president, Atiku, took time to explain some steps on how Nigeria will be restructured to solve the country’s problems.

The full publication read:

“My attention has been drawn to a letter written to Premium Times in response to an essay on restructuring authored by me.

Faced with an avalanche of public condemnation for his 360-degree turn on the concept of restructuring, it is understandable that the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has written to Premium Times to douse the tension his comments created. However, in doing so, the Vice President should not attempt to revise history by saying that he spoke against ‘geographic restructuring’.

I have been in the forefront of the discourse on restructuring since the 1995 Abacha Constitutional Conference and to the best of my knowledge, there has not been any term like ‘geographic restructuring’. It is a strange concept, not only because it is not what the restructuring debate is all about, but also because the words of the Vice President, which prompted my response were clear, unambiguous and unequivocal.

Mr. Osinbajo said, “the problem with our country is not a matter of restructuring”. That I disagree with and so do many other Nigerians. If the Vice President has changed his stance, I welcome it, but we should not use one finger to hide behind semantics

For the Vice President to say “Alhaji Atiku’s concept of restructuring is understandably vague, because he seeks to cover every aspect of human existence in that definition”, is most unfortunate.

I have been very clear, detailed, and unambiguous about my ideas for restructuring. At several occasions, including, but not limited to my speeches at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), and at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (made in April this year and July 2017, respectively), I gave very clear and concise ideas about administrative, political and economic restructuring as follows.

.Devolution of powers and resources to the states.

· No state will receive less Federal funds than today as a result of restructuring.

· Matching grants from the federal government to the states to help them grow their internally generated revenue position.

· The privatisation of unviable federal Government-owned assets.

· A truly free market economy driven by the laws of demand and supply.

· Replacing state of origin with state of residence, and

· Passing the PIGD so that our oil and gas sector will run as a business with minimal governmental interference.

I am hard pressed to see how these clear and specific ideas can be described as ‘vague’. One would have thought that if anything is vague, it would be the idea of ‘geographic restructuring’ whose meaning is hanging in the air.

Be that as it may, in his letter, Vice President Osinbajo then jumps from the topic of restructuring and goes on to say:

“Good governance involves, inter alia, transparency and prudence 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 as of today. Our NPower is now employing 500,000 graduates; our TraderMoni that will be giving microcredit to 2 million petty traders; our Conditional Cash Transfers giving monthly grants to over 400,000 of the poorest in Nigeria. The plan is to cover a million households.”

While what Professor Osinbajo says may be true or false, I must say that his dovetailing into the area of the economy does not explain certain facts such as the fact that the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics reported in December 2017 that Nigeria lost 7.9 million jobs in the 21 month period under review.

Professor Osinbajo also harps on about “prudence in public finance”, but he fails to show the wisdom in sharing out $322 million of Abacha funds to the poor only to take a loan of $328 million from the Chinese the very next month. Many Nigerians, myself included, see this as imprudence.

Finally, while the Vice President is not exactly correct when he says “In four years from 2010 to 2014 the PDP government earned the highest oil revenues in Nigeria’s history, USD381.9billion. By contrast the Buhari Administration has earned USD121 billion from May 2015 to June 2018”, let us for the sake of argument say that he is right.

My response to Vice President Osinbajo is that while I was Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2006, Nigeria’s Economic Management Team, of which I was a prominent member, paid off Nigeria’s entire foreign debt of $30 billion, at a time when we were earning one third of what the Buhari administration is currently earning from oil. So such arguments are puerile at best.

My advice to the Vice President is that he should choose whether he is for restructuring or whether he is against it and stick to his choice. This continuous prevarication, this approbation and reprobation, helps no one, least of all true progressives who know that Nigeria needs to be restructured and restructured soon” the statement added

in a way I love the way both of them go about this. no insults, very mature

Blakjewelry:
in a way I love the way both of them go about this. no insults, very mature

if only nairaland members would emulate them...

Atiku get brain sha

CROWNWEALTH019:
Atiku get brain sha

he is educated, i trust his instincts

Atiku 2019 all the way he is the only person that will deliver us from misreable government of buari.... I stand to say yes to Restructuring....

We're so sorry Mr Atiku. I'm appealing on behalf of Osinbanjo. We can't really blame the midget. His knowledge on restructuring is as dwarf as his height.

Atiku is nothing but a liar and a failure
But one thing you should understand is that Nigerians are more wiser now and all these deception game can't work again. You are just beating around the bush and still couldn't clearly defined your position...you are neither in agreement with Osinbajo nor against him and I so much know you don't even realize this. Now that you are well aware that Osinbajo flogged you in that letter, you quickly come out to defend yourself but you are only sounding like a broken record in this write up...your aid was not well prepared for this I guess.

Brunosamel:
Atiku 2019 all the way he is the only person that will deliver us from misreable government of buari.... I stand to say yes to Restructuring....

Atiku has nothing to offer this country, there is no more second chance for Nigerian politician. Wolfs will always be wolfs...we all knew how he performed woefully as one time Vice President of this country. What has he learnt that makes him different now. This is not the kind of leader we want...

Alhaji Atiku leaves out the elephant in the room – corruption. And how grand corruption, fuelled by a rentier economic structure that benefits those who can use political positions or access to either loot the treasury or get favourable concessions, to enrich themselves.

I am beginning to love this Atiku and the matured way he ushers his manifestoes.

Truth is we don't trust any politician but we commend a sound argument.

Not like Lie Mohammed type of politician who talks like FOOLS.

SolutionMee:


We're so sorry Mr Atiku. I'm appealing on behalf of Osinbanjo. We can't really blame the midget. His knowledge on restructuring is as dwarf as his height.

Surprisingly, Alhaji Atiku leaves out the elephant in the room – corruption. And how grand corruption, fuelled by a rentier economic structure that benefits those who can use political positions or access to either loot the treasury or get favourable concessions, to enrich themselves.

Atiku is too empty to understand and know the true concept of restructuring.
He is more concerned about becoming the president by all means possible so as to loot and run the country aground. He does not have any plan to do anything about restructuring. How will he get back the money he will spend for election if he can not control the main source of revenue if he becomes president.

SolutionMee:


We're so sorry Mr Atiku. I'm appealing on behalf of Osinbanjo. We can't really blame the midget. His knowledge on restructuring is as dwarf as his height.

Surprisingly, Atiku leaves out the elephant in the room – corruption. And how grand corruption, fuelled by a rentier economic structure that benefits those who can use political positions or access to either loot the treasury or get favourable concessions, to enrich themselves.

Walexddon20:
Atiku is nothing but a liar and a failure
But one thing you should understand is that Nigerians are more wiser now and all these deception game can't work again. You are just beating around the bush and still couldn't clearly defined your position...you are neither in agreement with Osinbajo nor against him and I so much know you don't even realize this. Now that you are well aware that Osinbajo flogged you in that letter, you quickly come out to defend yourself but you are only sounding like a broken record in this write up...your aid was not well prepared for this I guess.

, Try to know the truth and been free from demonic party of APC and evil contraption of this British make up.Atiku we know.

This is issue based campaign and ideological argument..
To be candid Osibanjo golfed big time. He tried to play politics but scored own goal by his poor articulation s on restructuring.
Atiku is more lucid in making his points.

Atiku cannot see beyond his nose, that is his problem.
Beyond restructuring, fiscal federalism and proper management of resources is what we need to focus on presently. When our resources is properly managed, the nation then becomes a better place to be. PYO is a man of intellect, and he quite understands how this works.

CROWNWEALTH019:
Atiku get brain sha

you say?

I do not blame Atiku as it is obvious that he cannot see beyond his nose. The vice president has said nothing but the truth, fiscal federalism and proper management of our resources is what we need to improve upon in our dear country. Let us encourage a system where we all have access to what is our rights. God bless Nigeria

SolutionMee:


We're so sorry Mr Atiku. I'm appealing on behalf of Osinbanjo. We can't really blame the midget. His knowledge on restructuring is as dwarf as his height.

Walexddon20:



Atiku has nothing to offer this country, there is no more second chance for Nigerian politician. Wolfs will always be wolfs...we all knew how he performed woefully as one time Vice President of this country. What has he learnt that makes him different now. This is not the kind of leader we want...

then who do have in mind cuz looking at all the aspirant they seems to be outdated

Ok Mr Atiku, we have heard you but listen to this.

1. The same PIB your party could not conclude in 16 years, and the collusion of your party members with the senate president of this National Assembly has not passed? who is fooling who?

Because Saraki became senate president with the help of PDP senators, is it not obvious that the National Assembly has held back the PIB and notably the PDP legislators have directly or indirectly been responsible for this because vested interests want things to remain the way they are.

The verve with which the National assembly pushed for the Inec reform bill is not the same as the effort put into the PIB.

2. Following the point stated above, you refused to address corruption directly, stating in the media that if anyone has evidence against you, they should come forth with such evidence.

Then why does Obasanjo hate you politically? it is on record that Nasir El-rufai said on tv, "that he advised you, with the dossier that Obasanjo had on you, it was better you go softly and plead with him".

However we can rest assured that 2 thieves cannot wash their dirty linen in public, Honor among thieves, esprit de corps, so no one will hunt you.

However your brand of politics does not endear Nigerians to you. You are saying nothing about anti corruption which was rife in your administration and which has ravaged Nigeria.

3. When PYO spoke of geographical restructuring, it was because a lot of people want to return to the regional system instead of the 36 state system which we currently operate, this can only be ratified by an act of parliament.

PYO sees fiscal federalism, state police and constitutional reform to devolve power from the F.G to the states as the issues needing to be addressed, how you deliberately said the same thing as he did without answering the question he put to you is a pointer to your political leanings at this point in time.

4. The question of maintaining allocations to state at the current rate without addressing issues such as resource control, which has been a key part of the Niger Delta struggle, either suggests ignorance or 'playing to the gallery'. Nigerians are looking for solutions, not journeys to the past.

5. The previous privatization programs under your government from 1999-2007 how well did that process turn out for the companies sold ?

6. Why should the F.G give matching grants to states to grow IGR, when the issue at hand is a need to review the constitution, so that states can have access to explore and exploit their natural resources, trade with a comparative advantage, allow investors to set up viable companies, provide a stable investor friendly environment, mop up the IGR from this processes and remit a percentage to the F.G as the previous regional governments did, are you suggesting that the states as we have them now are handicapped?

Let me stop here now, because there are more questions to be answered by your team if your dream of clinching the PDP presidential primaries ticket is to become a reality. Never mind the larger contest of becoming president of the federal republic of Nigeria because that may be too far with current realities.

Restructure!Restructure!!Restructure!!! In a nation where everyone is after their own pockets, restructuring is not needed until the greed in this nation is tackled