The Vice-President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, has said Nigeria’s
diversity ought to be seen as a blessing because “the true wealth
of any nation is its human capital.”
He said having discovered that diversity was a driver of
economic growth and development, countries like the United States
of America and Canada had opened their doors to talented immigrants
from different parts of the world.
Osibanjo said it was also this understanding that made a former
governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, to look beyond Lagos State
while constituting his cabinet in 1999.
He said this decision by Tinubu was instrumental in the economic
prosperity of Lagos State since then.
Osinbajo said this in a lecture titled, “Promoting national
cohesion as a means of promoting progress and prosperity,” which he
delivered on Tuesday as part of events marking the 70th anniversary
of the Lagos Country Club.
Using Tinubu’s case as an example, Osinbajo argued that Nigeria
had a lot to benefit from its plurality and urged the citizens to
reject the notion that the country’s diversity was its problem.
He said, “It is clear that when we create spaces for migratory
talents to flourish without discrimination, there is an economic
multiplier that results in an ever-increasing radius of growth.
“Perhaps there is a little more to the prosperity of Lagos. If
you look for example, even in contemporary times, the conscious
decision of Bola Tinubu, then governor of Lagos State, to appoint
commissioners from everywhere in Nigeria, in my view, is partly
responsible for the peerless progress that Lagos State has made
over the years from 1999.
“In 1999, he appointed Mr Wale Edun from Ogun State as
Commissioner for Finance; Rauf Aregbesola from Osun State as
Commissioner for Works; Fola Arthur- Worrey from Delta State as
Commissioner for Lands; Ben Akhabueze from Anambra State as
Commissioner for Budget and Planning; Lai Mohammed, who was then
Chief of Staff, from Kwara State; and I, from Ogun State, as
Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice.
“Of course, he was opposed by Lagos indigenes, who felt that by
virtue of indigeneship, they were qualified to be commissioners and
should be appointed and the argument is always valid that ‘why
should anybody come from their own state and be commissioner in our
own state?’
“But during that period because the then governor sought for the
best talents that he could find, he didn’t restrict the search to
the indigenes of Lagos State, Lagos undertook fiscal, judicial and
environmental reforms that have made the state a model for the rest
of the country.
“If you look at what has happened, even just looking at fiscal
reform alone, today, Lagos State’s IGR is greater than the combined
total of 31 states of Nigeria.
“How did that happen? A fiscal reform took place because Tinubu
took the best minds that he could find. If that best mind was in
Anambra State, Tinubu took it.”