Abuja, Jan.18, 2023 – Rauf Aregbesola, the Minister of the Interior, has called for a review of the nation’s model of federalism to enable the federating units unlock their potential for the benefit of the country and its people.
He blamed the poor state of development in the country on the huge population of unemployed people.
The minister made the suggestion at a one-day dialogue on tracking campaign promises for good governance in Abuja.
He dismissed the notion in some quarters that once elected, politicians do not care about fulfilling their electioneering promises, saying that as a governor of Osun State, he regularly monitored his performance based on set targets.
“Why is Nigeria having challenges? It is simple! We have no revenue.
“A country of 200 million with less than 10 per cent working and productive and you think there will be development? No! Development is impossible.
“There is no revenue. Even our per capital income from oil, assuming nothing is even taken out of it, is nothing.
“There is a knowledge gap, and I don’t want to sound self-righteous. There is a lot of confusion, but there should be no confusion.
“Nigeria is not the only federation in the world. Australia is a federation.
“India is a federation; America is a federation as well as Brazil.
“How are other federations run? There is no third tier of government in a federation. There are only two tiers of government in a federation. We need to educate ourselves on what a federation is.
“They only live on handouts here and that is where the challenge comes from. What is wrong is not what the media is looking at. No recipient of the handout can be responsible.
“Whoever depends on the handout, cannot be responsible. He will be answerable for where the money comes from.
“If you ask him to run, he will run. There is no dignity in charity. This is where Nigeria is having challenges,” Aregbesola said. (GBN)
