Vice President Osinbajo on State Police, and Devolution of powers

Osinbajo advocates state police, devolution of powers: Nigeria can become a stronger and more prosperous nation if states have more powers, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

Vice President Osinbajo on Devolution of Power.

“Building stronger states means ensuring the devolution of more power to the states, enabling them to control more of their resources and make more of their own administrative decisions such as the creation of Local Governments, the establishment of state and community police forces as well as state correctional facilities; creation of special courts and tribunals of equivalent jurisdiction to high courts. The point I am making is that states must have more powers and more rights."

"The nation cannot be wealthy when it's component parts – the states – are poor. The standard of living of the federation depends on the standard of living of people who live in the states. In other words, the federation can only be as rich as its richest state and as strong as its strongest state. Our national indices merely aggregate the realities of our weaknesses and strengths as present in all our constituent units. Consequently, we can only build a stronger and more prosperous nation by building a stronger and more prosperous states.”

Now, someone is speaking truth to power. So, I am glad that Vice President Osinbajo has garnered some gumption and speak on the record. My prayer is that his party, APC, do what is right and pull Nigeria out of a Unitary Form of Government.

In light of this speech from the Vice President, I strongly recommend that you stroll than to read my recent essay, titled, "Nigeria: The Defining Moment" and "Remembering History"

Nigerian intellectuals should wake up, be alive to developing important national issues and participate. Vice President Osinbajo has issued a challenge - debate it and Chief Edwin Clark concurred.