New fuel supply and pricing regime: President Buhari had no choice- VP Osinbajo

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, asserted
yesterday at a public book presentation event in
Abuja “If there is one person in Nigeria that
believes that petroleum prices should not go up
by one Naira, it is President Buhari,”.

Explaining the difficult decision announced last
week by the federal government, Prof. Osinbajo
said the President simply had no other option.
Although the President did not want the fuel
price to go up, the Vice President said “he is
left with no choice. What can we do if we don't
have foreign currency, we have to import fuel.”
While observing the petroleum products are
being imported today into the country, he
asserted that even “if we repair our refineries
today, we would still be able to refine 40% of
our petroleum, so we still need to import.”
Prof Osinbajo then raised a rhetorical query: “in
the absence of foreign exchange and you have
to import your refined petroleum, what are you
left with?

The Vice President who spoke at the public
presentation of Anatomy of Corruption in
Nigeria: Issues, Challenges & Solutions, a
collection of essays edited by Yusuf O. Ali, SAN,
asserted that “a lot of the problems associated
with the refineries are corruption related.”
He also attended the public presentation of
Prof. Ladipo Adamolekun, who just published
his autobiography, I Remember.
According to the VP, corruption “explains why
many States are owing salaries and continue to
owe salaries.”

Furthermore he noted that “when we look at
corruption and its deleterious consequences, we
must relate it directly to what we are
experiencing at this time.”
For example, he said “most of the States, since
February 2016, many have been owing, some up
to 6 months. When we came into office we
tried to settle many of those debts but the
Federation Account is lower and we are unable
to find the resources to shore up the
Federation Account.”

Driving home the point about the consequences
of corruption, the Vice President said “When
you consider that today, Nigeria's reserves
stands at about $27billion and we are
investigating $15billion from one sector alone.
That is over half of the entire reserves of the
country.

“We are investigating cases which shows
that over $15billion was lost in one type
of contracts alone. We are not talking of
oil contracts, we are talking of security
related contracts alone. We have not
talked at all about oil contracts, several
billions.

“How we dimension the problem must be
different. We can not look at it the same
way as if it is just petty stealing. This is
not just stealing the resource of the
country, it is stealing the future as well.
“Let me just state one clear example. All
through the period when Nigeria was
earning over 100 - 115 dollars in
proceeds of oil for a period of almost 5
years, the external reserves of Nigeria
remained much the same. It did not
(significantly) increase at all despite the
very high earnings.

“And that is why we have the situation
that we find ourselves today. It is the
external reserves that a country resorts
to as a last resort in protecting its
currency.”

Doing a quick international comparative analysis
using another oil-producing country, the VP said
:
“when countries were experiencing these
high prices, some countries were putting
money aside, Saudi Arabia saved over $
700billion,-(as at last year) so when their
currency began to suffer, of course they
were able to shore up their currency with
their reserves.”

In the case of Nigeria however, Prof Osinbajo
lamented that “we are unable to do so. And the
reason is because the reserves have been
depleted. It is the same reason why it is
difficult to do very very many other things that
we should be doing as a nation.”
He then declared that corruption poses an
existential threat to the country.

“I want to just very quickly say that corruption
has no label. It is not just a social evil, it is an
existential threat to our country. There is no
doubt at all that this is unlike other countries,
(where) people say that there is corruption
everywhere, which is true.

“But I think the one distinguishing
feature for Nigeria and for many other
countries like ours is that it is a threat
that directly affects the lives and
livelihoods of everyone.

“It is not just an evil, it is not just an
immorality, it is an existential threat
because it could truly destroy lives and it
has destroyed many many lives and has
continued to destroy the Nigerian
economy.”

Prof. Osinbajo then declared that “unless there
is a determined effort to fight corruption at all
levels, unless that effort is determined, unless
we have the political, the judicial, even the
religious will, we would find ourselves in a
continuous cycle of corruption, economic
adversity, more corruption, more economic
adversity.”

“As I observed at another event, when
you look at those who are accused of
corruption in Nigeria, look at any typical
case of fraud or corruption, you will
never find three Igbo men (by
themselves alone) or three Yoruba men
or 3 Hausa speaking men, (by
themselves alone) NO! You will find
federal character, well-represented.
“You find the Yoruba man, you find the
Igbo man, you find the Hausa man, the
Fulani man. All different groups are very
well-represented. Amongst them you will
find Christians and you will find Muslims.

“All of the defenses that people put
forward, that, oh! it is the Igbo man, oh!
it is the Hausa man, it is Yorubas, and
so on, none of that is demonstrated by
the facts. “That is why it is important
that as a Nigerian elite, we have the
special privilege of education, we have a
special privilege of position. It is the
responsibility of that privilege that we
must fight everything that normally
hinder and distorts our economy and kill
our people as well.”

“That is why we must as an elite in
leadership fight corruption. Some people
suggest it is a matter of religion, It is
not a matter of religion, I pastor a
church. I pastor churches, so I know.
What is important is that we must
recognize corruption for what it is. Make
no excuses for it and fight it with
determination.

“I want to assure you that the
government of President Buhari is
determined to fight corruption, and that
despite whatever those naysayers may
say, we would fight it with everything
that we have and we will leave a legacy
in this nation of at least a government
that chose to stand by principle and
chose to stand by doing things right.”

Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant-Media & Publicity
In the Office of the Vice President