Fayose, Aregbesola discuss over sales of nations assets

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State and his , Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola of osun state have expressed divergent views on the proposed sale of Nigerias assets to resuscitate the economy. The governors spoke at the weekend, during one of the activities to mark the 20th anniversary of Ekiti State. Governor Aregbesola, who delivered a keynote address on the state of the nation’s economy opined that non functioning national assets should be sold off as part of measures to revive the economy. On his part, Fayose vehemently opposed the idea and declared that selling off the nation’s assets amounts to auctioning Nigeria. Aregbesola and Fayose It amounts to auctioning Nigeria — Fayose Fayose said: “I’m totally opposed to the sale of the national assets, as selling the national assets is like selling Nigeria at give-away price: selling our assets simply amounts to auctioning Nigeria. If we sell the assets because the country is in recession, what would be left of Nigeria? What would we call our own? Selling of assets is like bringing the country more backward.   If we sell the assets to finance this year’s budget, what would we sell next year? “The Federal Government   should look beyond its party and assemble economists, financial experts who would assist the President in his drive to bring the nation out of the present economic quagmire.” The Ekiti governor also urged the Federal Government, “to uphold the principles of justice and equity, which are germane to building democracy. Justice is very important and without it, democracy is already endangered. If people are now beginning to contest against INEC and security agencies for manipulations of elections, then democracy is endangered.   It is political parties that are supposed to contest elections and not people contesting against inadequacies of the electoral umpire. A virile opposition is a veritable ingredient of democracy. The Federal Government should promote justice and the rule of law and ensure that justice is administered to all parties irrespective of political affiliation.” Let’s sell our idle assets — Aregbesola On his part, Governor Aregbesola, who proffered other measures such as aggressive effort on agriculture, concerted efforts to end oil pipeline vandalism and regional integration towards meaningful development, said: “We should revive agriculture, especially food production. Agriculture gives us raw materials for industries and aids in no small measure to economic development. If we can improve on our productivity in food production through agriculture, we will eliminate hunger in our land.” He said: “I want to urge all Nigerians on a concerted effort to end the on-going vandalism of oil pipelines as the militants’ activities have been reducing the nation’s daily   productivity level to between 700,000 to 1 million per barrels. “The current vandalism of oil pipelines by the Niger Delta militants is robbing the nation of oil production of 700,000 to 1 million barrels of oil on a daily basis. This amounts to a huge loss of oil revenue to the country and has further led to the current recession in the country. An urgent concerted effort is therefore needed to stop the vandalism so that the country could get out of the recession.” While commending Ekiti people for their integrity and courage, Aregbesola urged them to continue to stand behind their governor for the development of the country. “I congratulate you all Ekiti people on the 20th anniversary of the creation of your state, my state our state. You fought the Ekiti Parapo war which is an indication of unity of purpose. There is strength in unity.” “It is high time the Yoruba nation and indeed the South-West unite in terms of integrating our development strategies in education, commerce, economy, agriculture and tourism among others. There is no reason why we should not unite for the best. The truth is that no Yoruba state, with the exception of Lagos State, can survive alone without collaborating with sister states. Therefore, we have to come together, pull together our abundant human and material resources.” Explaining why he chose Aregbesola, a colleague from another political party as speaker for the occasion, Fayose said there was a dire need for the nation to remove the veil of politics and work together as a team to rescue the nation from current economic woes: “ I took this decision that you should come instead of my colleague from my party because if we don’t take away the veil of politics and wear the armour of Nigeria, we would be wasting our time. I’ve personally visited you before and I’m glad you are also here. “ I want to caution that theory don’t amount to reality, Nigeria requires practical steps to surmount our challenges.   If you examine critically the current trend in the country, Nigerians have began to ask why don’t we go back to the time when Dollar used to be N200 to one and not N500 to one. They are beginning to ask questions why we are still using cuttlasses and hoes when we want to diversify. Why in 15 months of the current administration there has been no step taken to declare emergency in agriculture. “ All countries that I know, including the little Ghana, are all importing things that are important to their people. At this present time, we are nose-diving and not progressing because there have not been cogent steps taken by the Federal Government to effect a positive change. “ One important thing is that it is not about what we eat or wear, it is about leadership. It’s about the body language of the leaders. When our leaders go outside the country and brand us armed robbers, there are so many foreigners who want to invest in our economy but are afraid because of all these.”