… Insists $1bn anti-insurgency fund not for Boko Haram war alone***
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says the collaboration of the Federal and state government is crucial to achieving development plans of the country.
He stated this on Tuesday at the retreat of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation with Secretaries to the State Governments held in Abuja.
He noted that the business of governing needs innovations to tackle complex challenges, adding that the two tiers of government were in a better situation to resolve them through partnership.
“But despite the important initiatives and decisions of NEC, we will achieve little if we do not have relevant state government agencies actively working with the federal government to implement them.
“So, the role of the SGFs is clearly central to cascading the action points and conclusions to the relevant MDAs in their states.
“And this is so, whether we are implementing the federal government’s fertilizer policy or the anchor borrowers scheme in the states.’’
He said that one of the challenges of federalism is that while the federal and state governments enjoy individual autonomy, they must still operate as one government.
He noted that the objective was for the government of the federation to serve the best economic and social interest of the people.
“So when we speak of the Nigerian economy it is the sum of the economies of the federal government and the states.
“Yet each government determines its own priorities, draws its own budget and implements its own programmes and projects.
“So a meeting such as this, where the agenda and modalities for collaboration may be set is in my view an eminently sensible idea and requires the support of all of us if we are to meet the expectations of our people,’’ he said.
The Vice President stated that one of the crucial concerns of the federal government’s economic development agenda was to improve local and foreign investments in the country.
Osinbajo remarked that the SGFs office coordinates the Ecological fund and NEMA that frequently intervened in the states.
He said it was the responsibility of the SGFs office to interface with the states to ensure that such interventions were improved.
In the meantime, Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Tuesday said the much-criticised $1bn that state governors asked the Federal Government to withdraw from the Excess Crude Account was not meant for the fight against insurgency alone.
He said the sum was meant for all security challenges being experienced in all the states of the federation.
Osinbajo gave the clarification at the opening of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation/Secretaries to State Governments’ retreat at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
It will be recalled that the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, Abdulaziz Yari, had, at a meeting of the National Economic Council last Wednesday, announced that the governors had asked the Federal Government to withdraw $1bn from the ECA to fight insurgency.
The decision had attracted criticisms from groups and individuals, including the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose; and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
But Osinbajo explained that the governors resolved to approve the money for national security after a national security summit organised by the National Executive Council about two months ago.
He said the summit considered various security challenges across the country, including kidnapping, small arms trafficking, terrorist activities of Boko Haram in the North East, clashes between herdsmen and farmers, as well as cattle rustling.
The Vice-President said, “It was on account of the security summit that the governors at the Governors’ Forum subsequently decided that they would vote a certain sum of money, which has become somewhat controversial, the $1bn, to assist the security architecture of the country.
“It was to assist all of the issues in the states, including policing in the states, community policing, all of the different security challenges that we have.
“It was after the security summit that the Governors’ Forum met across party lines –again, I must add — in order to approve and to accept that this is what needed to be done to shore up our security architecture.”
Osinbajo’s explanation was, however, in contrast with the statement made by the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, while addressing State House correspondents at the end of the NEC’s meeting.
Obaseki was clear in his presentation that the $1bn was approved for the fight against insurgency.
Additional report from Citizen
