Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has assured
Nigerians that the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government is
working round the clock to reverse the current recession and tackle
hunger among the citizenry by improving food production.
Osinbajo, who disagreed with those
arguing that the current government should desist from blaming previous
administration for the woes betiding Nigeria, gave the assurances
yesterday during a state of the nation colloquim organised by Pastor
Wale Adefarasin-led Coalition of Nigerian Apostolic Leaders which held
at Guiding Light Assembly, Parkview, Lagos.
He attributed the regrettable state of
affairs in the country to unsustainable economic structure,
over-dependence on crude oil to the detriment of agriculture,
vandalisation of oil installations; largely import dependent economy,
dependence on foreign exchange and previously untamed high spate of
corruption.
The two main reasons for where we are
obvious; drop in oil prices and two, corruption. Anything else you’re
looking at is just a manifestation of the two. When Trans Focado was
bombed, we lost 40% of gas generation. Once there is problem in the oil
sector, there would be problem in the economy.
“We could have avoided what happened in
the North-east but $15bn arms fund was stolen. There is no economy that
can withstand that kind of shock. When people say we should not talk
about what has happened in the past, it is ridiculous. If you lose half
of your foreign reserve, there is a shock on the economy”, he noted.
He said as part of efforts at blocking
leakages that allowed for wasteful spending of scarce resources,
government is embarking on fiscal prudence methods, particularly with
the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and the I-pay policy.
“With the fiscal prudency, we are
controlling how government fund is spent for efficiency and that has
saved billions. With the TSA, we are able to ensure that government
revenue is well accounted for and to control how government expenditure
is received and spent.
“You heard when they said a high placed
military officer receives N585 million from others’ salaries. With the
electronic platform, I-pay, those kinds of anomalies are no longer
possible. Then government is working to increase tax compliance. 700,000
new companies have been registered.
“Now we are trying to improve Value
Added Tax (VAT) compliance. We are still at about 5% while other
countries like Ghana have about 10% and our coverage is only 12%. So, it
is better to increase coverage for VAT so that more revenue can come
in,” he said.
He also noted that the federal
government’s decision to deregulate the downstream sector of the oil
industry was yielding positive results and uncovering the massive
corruption in the subsidy regime.
According to him, while under the
subsidy regime, Nigerians were made to believe that we consume about 55
million metric tons daily, but immediately after the removal, though
shooting up the price of fuel, it became clear that only about 28 – 32m
metric tons are consumed.
“The sharp drop shows the extent of
subsidy fraud and the deregulation made us reflect more on what the
actual cost of petrol is”, he stated.
He however expressed great optimism that
when the Dangote refinery in Lagos with the capacity to produce 650
barrels per day becomes operational, it will save the country about 30%
of the much needed foreign being expended on the importation of
petroleum products.
The Vice President also hinted that no
fewer than 200,000 Nigerian job seekers will be engaged through the
government’s proposed 500,000 volunteer corps programme.
“We are working to create jobs. Of
course, the best way to create jobs is through the private sector but
government must provide an enabling environment and that is what we are
doing. Through the 500,000 volunteer corps programme, we are creating
opportunities for young graduates to enable them earn some money and
they would have a device with a module that will allow them learn.
“Close to a million people have registered and in 14 days, we would start with 200,000″, adding that government is investing heavily on infrastructure.
Addressing the audience who expressed
concerns over bill seeking to entrench the Sharia Law in all the 36
states of the federation and which seems to be getting favourable
attention from the National Assembly, Osinbajo said it is erroneous to
assume that government was interested in the bill.
“First of all, it is not right at all
that the federal government is interested in any Sharia bill. Every bill
that is a government bill must come from the Attorney-General of the
Federation (AGF). This Sharia bill was presented by somebody within the
National Assembly and my understanding is that it has not even passed
the second reading. But let’s even assume that it did, you cannot change
a Nigeria law without a constitution amendment. Sharia is in the
constitution since 1979 and it applies to Muslims on issues of marriage,
inheritance and others. Any change, whatsoever, cannot come by the way
of amendment within the National assembly; it has to be by
constitutional amendment.
“Aside from both the Senate and House of
Representatives, amendment of Constitution must go to two-thirds of the
states; 24 states must say they want it. So, it is not possible, we
should not waste our time and energy on it”, he argued.
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