Osinbajo
While
speaking on Wednesday at a seminar organized by the Institute for
Security Studies in Abuja, the Acting President, Professor Yemi
Osinbajo, spoke on many issues making rounds in the polity.
The Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has stated that
Nigerian leaders are never divided by ethnicity or religion when it
comes to stealing the country’s resources.
Osinbajo said this on Wednesday, in Abuja, at a seminar organized by the Institute for Security Studies. The seminar, which had “Unity in Diversity” as its theme, addressed the raging claims of marginalization by certain sections of the country.
According to the Acting President, claims of marginalization are
principally driven by selfish interests, which have given rise to false
narratives. One of such false narratives, he said, is that a single
ethnic or religious group bears greater responsibility for the country’s
challenges or that one is superior to the other. In challenging the
version of events, the Acting President said his experience is that
Nigerian leaders are very united when it comes to looting the treasury.
“I have found and I have repeated this several times that
whenever you look at a charge sheet, that is a sheet where people have
been charged with an offense, especially those who have served one way
or the other in the Federal Government of Nigeria; charged with stealing
or corruption, you will never find one ethnic group alone represented.
You will always find an equal representation of the ethnic groups. There
is complete unity in this business of stealing. You will also not find
one religious group, you will find that there is nobody arguing about
religion when it comes to these matters,” he said.
To support his claim, he added that the country has triumphed only
in instances where attention was not paid to religious or ethnic
differences. For example, said the Acting President, there is no focus
on religion and ethnicity when the country’s football teams take to the
field. The collective goal, he explained, is the outcome of the match.
He advised Nigerians to extend that attitude to every aspect of national
life.
“I want to say that that is exactly where we should be as a
nation today. We should just be telling ourselves – just win, just
score; it does not matter where you are from so long as you are in
government or wherever you are, just win for this nation and we do not
want to ask questions of where you are from,” he counselled.
Professor Osinbajo also challenged the view that countries cobbled
together, like Nigeria was, are doomed to fail, describing holders of
the view, especially those describing the country as a “mere geographical expression” as pseudo-intellectuals.
“Those who say so do not know that even the expression, ‘mere
geographical expression”, used in relation to a country was not first
used in relation to Nigeria. As a matter of the fact, it was the German
statesman Klemens von Metternich, who used this same expression for
Italy. He simply summed up Italy as a mere geographical expression
exactly a century before Nigeria was born.
"Italy is still a mere geographical expression, but still a
nation. So, we must not be misled by those in some pseudo-intellectual
way suggest to us that the mere fact that we did not deliberately, one
day, hold a conference to come together means that we should not or
cannot stay together. Indeed, we can,” he argued.
He equally contended that most countries of the world came together
by some accident of history or forced to be together, adding that the
wise ones among such have decided to remain united.
The Acting President warned that it is a false assumption that an
ethnic group is better taken care of if one of its members runs the
government, saying the country’s experience has shown that no ethnic
group has necessarily fared better socio-economically because one of its
own is in power.
“There is no fact to support that whatsoever and that is how it has always been,” he argued.
He warned that those who level charges of marginalization against
other sections or religion do not do so out of selfless love for their
areas of origin. He explained that when people from certain zones say
their zones have been marginalized, what they are saying is that they
should be given government appointments because they hail from one zone
or the other.
“Whenever people make these charges of marginalization, it is
usually self-serving. I sat with the President once when two members of
the National Assembly came to him and said we, referring to states in
the North, have been marginalized. They went on to explain why. They
mentioned some states had no senior ministers. One of them said: ‘Kaduna
had no senior minister; the only minister is the minister of state’. He
mentioned also Sokoto, even Katsina. Then he mentioned another group
and he said, all these people have senior ministers, some groups in the
South have senior ministers,” he recalled.
Professor Osinbajo said he responded before President Muhammadu
Buhari responded, telling the federal legislators that there was no
consideration, at the time the appointments were made, about whether or
not they wanted to appoint a senior minister from one area or the other.
His response, he said, was not well received by the National Assembly
members. The Acting President reasoned that if one looks at any
particular situation, one can invent a narrative to suit a personal or
sectional agenda.
Once, he said, he was visited by a group, which complained that
being a pastor, he should be taking care of the country’s Christian
community. The group, he said, told him that the cabinet was loaded with
Muslims to the disadvantage of Christians. When the group’s claim was
put under scrutiny, revealed the Acting President, it was discovered
that there were two more Christians than Muslims in the cabinet, which
currently has one more Christian than Muslims.
Professor Osinbajo said he was astounded by the development, which
he said also aroused suspicions in him that many of those pushing
religious agenda have no commitment to their faiths.
“The impression is that the moment a person is appointed, it is
almost as if these are militants for their religion. Many of them do
not even subscribe fully to their faiths in any way,” stated the Acting President.
Professor Osinbajo rejected the view that that hate speech is part
of freedom of expression and should be condoned. He warned that
condoning hate speech will be a grievous error by any group of people.
According to him, every major catastrophic human conflict, including of
the genocidal variety, was sparked by hate or extremist ideology,
especially hate speech.
“We must do something about hate speech; we must control hate
speech and we must insist that it is not acceptable at public discourse
of any type whether it be on radio or social media. We cannot allow the
promotion of hate speech,” he stated.
He pointed at the sentencing of media owners to lengthy prison
terms by the International Criminal Court for the promotion of hate
speech, which led to the Rwandan genocide in April of 1994.
In response to the clamor for the dismantling of the country,
Professor Osinbajo none of the parts being proposed as stand-alone
nations can be as viable as Nigeria, even if they survive.
“None of them would be more viable, none of them can be as
successful as a country such as this coming together. The other day at
the AU (African Union), I was listening to some of the comments from
several African leaders and I was whispering to the gentleman next to me
that Rwanda is one of those countries that is celebrated for good
governance, celebrated for a few things and even its economy. But when
you compare the entire Rwandan economy, you will find that Lagos’
economy is six times bigger and Lagos is just one state of out 36
states,” he said.
The Acting President said he has continued to state this view
everywhere he has gone. He argued that by its population, size of its
market and combined resources, Nigeria’s potential is even far greater
than the potential of most countries of the world.
He called on Nigerians to be courteous to one another in words and
actions, so as to ensure that passions are not inflamed in a way that
could lead to insecurity. He also stated that the country needs to
social justice seriously, adding that poverty is a ready recipe for a
variety of social problems.
“Very many poor people mean that there is a pool of
individuals, who have no stake in society, and so it is our business to
ensure that people have a stake in society.
"I think that we have a duty to ensure that we deal seriously
with issues of poverty and social justice. That is why for the first
time in the history of this country, when we were thinking through
budgeting, we looked at the questions of social interventions and the
social investment programs,” he explained.
The total outlay for social investment in the 2016 budget and in
the current budget, he said, is N500 billion, which is the largest
single item in the budget. Allied to social investment in promoting
social justice is the fight against corruption. Professor Osinbajo
described corruption as possibly the worst evil Nigeria has experienced
or will experience, saying it is the single reason that resources are
not evenly distributed.
“The fact that someone cornered the resources for themselves is
what accounts for where we are today, economically. I think that we
understand it for what it is. Many a times, people find excuses of every
kind to excuse corruption and it is so for religious leaders, political
leaders who look for all sorts of reasons to justify corruption.
Someone is taken to court and they say the reason he is taken to court
is because he belongs to another political party. Why don’t we ask the
question, did he steal? If he did, then he should be in court anyway,
there must be justice. That is the first question we must ask,” the Acting President reasoned.
While admitting that the country has made mistakes, Professor
Osinbajo said those wishing for a replay of the three year-civil war
that the country fought in the 70s are ignorant of its harrowing
effects.
He noted that those who witnessed the war will not wish its horrors
on their worst enemies. The Acting President added that those who only
read or heard stories about the war have no sense of how it was and are
largely responsible for the incendiary statements that are currently the
fad. He advised Nigerians to remember that a repetition of the tragic
mistakes that led to the war would be catastrophic for the country.
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