BIG STORY
Osinbajo Calls For Deepened Debate On Restructuring, Supports Creation Of State Police.
osinba
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is calling for a deeper understanding of the current restructuring debate in the country, and supports the idea of having State Police in the country accordingly to his spokesman, Mr. Laolu Akande.
Akande said there are have been different interpretations, meanings and purposes to which the restructuring debate is being put to.
The Vice President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity made the clarifications in Abuja and while speaking to a radio programme on Orange FM in Akure, Ondo State amidst some media reports that the Vice President opposed the restructuring because of his reported comments during a question-and-answer session at the Second Foundation Day Lecture of the Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin in Ondo State last week.
But Akande explained that while the Vice President questions whether the allocation of more funds to the states from the federal would be helpful at this time considering the dwindling revenues from oil and taxes, he wholly supports the idea of having State Police across the country as articulated in the APC’s Roadmap to a New Nigeria.
Akande said it was important Nigerians understand that the issue of restructuring should run deeper than some of the superficial and surface value focus. According to him some of the issues involved include notions or views calling for a return to regionalism, fiscal federalism, devolution of power, state police among others, adding that different interests are taking different approaches and at times this confuses the debate and reduces it to mere political rhetorics.
He said the Vice President while reacting to a question on whether allocation of more resources to states from the center would make them meet current demands of governance at this challenging period, emphasised that focus should be on economic diversification especially towards agriculture to make the states more vibrant in the wake of dwindling revenues from oil and taxes.
“Restructuring debate should do deeper than what we see on newspaper headlines and we need to understand all the angles to it…What do people mean when we talk about restructuring? some focus on regionalism, some focus of the fiscal part, allocation of more resources devolution of power, state police…it’s important we understand which part we are talking about at any given time.”
Continuing Akande said “in recent times, we do not have much resources that we used to have from oil and taxes and what we need to get the states to be more vibrant is to diversify the economy.”
He said the constitution recognises a Federal System of government already and the federal government is truly committed to true federalism.
Akande then submitted that the federal government is giving much attention to fighting corruption and ensuring effective governance at all levels because this is far more important than some of the political rhetorics and superficial arguments around restructuring so far.
Speaking on the president’s view to put the 2014 Confab report in the archives, Akande said with or without any Confab resolution, the Buhari-led government is much concerned with the overall well-being of the people, delivering results and bringing governance closer to them.
He said for instance, the current administration has implemented some of the decisions listed in the 2014 Confab report, not because it was in the report but because they were sound decisions. He listed two of such decisions including the merging of Budget office with National Planing as one full-fledged ministry and also the adoption in the 2016 budget of a 60-40% recurrent and capital expenditures
”The president will do what is right even without recourse to the Confab report. We have an agenda which is to promote the well being of the people and bring the benefits of governance to the people”. Akande said, adding that “we will not be stuck in an elitist political rhetoric that does not deepen the issues.”
It was a seven-star performance for Chain Reactions Africa (CRA), one of Africa’s leading Public Relations and Integrated Communications Consultancy as it took home seven African SABRE trophies, more than any other public relations firm in Africa in the 2024 competition.
The awards which were held at the end of the annual African Public Relations Association (APRA) Conference, were presented by Provoke Media, organizers of the awards in Basam, Abidjan, Cote D’Ivore on May 16th 2024.
The work covered campaigns for the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), and its Lagos Blue Rail, 9mobile’s The Hack – Expand Your Hustle’, ‘Taming the Bull’ for the Presidency, ‘Next Era of Happiness’ for leading biscuit company, Pladis Foods Nigeria Limited.
Receiving the awards on behalf of Chain Reactions and its clients, was its Managing Director/Chief Strategist, Israel Opayemi, who noted that this is a seven-star performance by Chain Reactions Africa at the 2024 SABRE Awards.
In his comments Opayemi said “to emerge as the highest winner at the 2024 edition of the award with seven SABRE Awards is humbling as well as exciting for us at Chain Reactions Africa. We are immensely proud to be honoured on such a global platform like the SABRE awards which is the holy grail of Public Relations globally as the awards programme is dedicated to benchmarking the best PR works across the globe.”
He continued, “I am making a three-fold dedication of these multiple trophies to our clients who believe in us, my team members who do the brave works relentlessly and our dear country Nigeria. Ten years ago, we were at the SABRE Awards in Miami, Florida in the United States watching and applauding as winners took turn on stage. Ten years ago, we were asking for a seat at the table. Today, we are sitting in creative resplendence at the head of the table. Today, we are flying the Nigerian flag on the global stage. We are now a territory of reckon and relevance in the global PR space.”
It seems winning awards is just a Chain Reactions thing, chuckled Arun Sudhaman CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Provoke Media, organizers of the SABRE Awards as Opayemi rose up seven times to receive the awards. The PR consultancy also picked up four Certificates of Excellence in recognition of its work launching the Nigerian Youth Trend Report 2024 known as ‘ARAMANDA’, ‘Next Era of Happiness’, ‘Lagos Blue Rail’, ‘The Hack – Expand Your Hustle’, and ‘Taming the Bull’.
In his reaction, President and Chairman of Council of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) described the awards by Chain Reactions Africa as “a harvest of honours for Nigeria”. He thanked the Chain Reactions Africa team for their outstanding works saying, “thank you for making us proud.”
Chain Reactions Africa has over the years won several prestigious SABRE awards and has been awarded more than 15 Certificates of Excellence. At last year’s award, the company won CEO of the Year category for the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu for use of public relations to tell the story of his administration’s achievements and scooped two Certificates of Excellence in the Corporate Image category for the ‘Momentum Campaign’ for Cellulant, a flagship payment solution provider; and ‘Marketing to Consumers’ category for ‘The #NaijaHighlandah Campaign’ for William Lawson’s, Scotch Whiskey brand.
The 2024 Africa SABRE Awards shortlist included more than 120 campaigns, selected from over 500 entries in this year’s competition, which recognizes Superior Achievement in Branding, Reputation and Engagement. The campaigns were evaluated by a jury of industry leaders.
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