April 08, (THEWILL) – Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has blamed prevailing poverty, even among resourceful country on corruption, poor governance and weak institutional capacity.
Osinbajo disclosed this during a two-day working visit in Ebonyi State, at the 21st edition of the Joint Planning Board, JPB/National Council on Development Planning (NCDP), meeting held at the new executive council Chambers, Abakaliki.
According to him, a country can have the whole natural resources in every local government area and even well educated workforce, and still fail and social services poorly delivered when it has weak and corrupt institutions.
Osinbajo said, “The council on development planning has remained a very important platform for setting the tone of national development. It certainly provides opportunity for federal and state governments to fathom out active collaboration for the wellbeing of our people.
“The need for synergy among all tiers of government at this critical time, especially as we continue to face the challenges of the onslaught of COVID-19 pandemic, which is now compounded by the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, which has already led to price and supply shock, especially in food and security. We must brace ourselves to collectively respond to the inevitable economic challenge that will occur and some which are already occuring.
“Let me take this opportunity to congratulate the council, federal ministry of finance, budget and national planning, federal and state MDAs and all stakeholders and indeed the private sector and the civil society for the sterling work that has been done in articulating a national development plan 2021-2025.
“The strategic objective of the national development plan include establishing a strong foundation for a diversified economy, investing in infrastructure, improving governmenace and stamping out insecurity. All of which would contribute to achieving our national development aspirations.
“I find the extensive deliberations and contributions to fashion a medium term blueprint, but the implementation of the plan is the crux of the matter and this speaks of the relevance to the theme of the meeting “Good Governance and Institutional Capacity: Pathways to Sustainable National Development.
“The question I am sure some of us asked ourselves is why a country with huge natural and human resources still developed slowly and have greater number of poverty than other less endowed society or country without resources at all like South Korea and Singapore. Why do they still perform better than than the resourceful country of the world? I think most of the surveys conducted show that there is lack of good governance and weak institutional capacity that largely account for the difference.
“How public institutions function is of course an approach determined by institutional capacity. But this is not merely having a merely educated and well motivated workforce. But a system that can enforce transparency and accountability. You must have a system that can deliver on transparency and accountability”, he stated.
Speaking earlier, Governor David Umahi, said that his administration had shown great prudence in financial management, stating that evidence abounds in the massive infrastructure emabrked by his administration.
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