I wish Nigeria oil dries up, says Kaduna governor el-Rufai

The Kaduna State Governor Mallam Nasir el-Rufai says he wishes that Nigeria oil wells dry up so that the government and the people can get serious about making the country realize its full potentials.

El-Rufai who made this known in Ibadan yesterday, said the oil wealth accruing to the country constitutes a major obstacle to Nigeria’s ability to think and innovate its way out of underdevelopment.

The governor who was the special guest of honour at the 2017 Town Hall Meeting/ F

ounder’s Day Celebration in memory of renowned economist, Professor Ojetunji Aboyade, also made a fresh case for state policing, while he warned against allowing the federal character policy to become an enemy of merit in appointments.

He said “Because Nigeria gets easy money from oil the nation has lost its thinking initiative on how to develop other sources of revenue and diversify the economy.

We get easy money, we do not collect taxes and our taxes are six per cent of Gross Domestic Product; that is an average of 21per cent. We stop respecting the intellectuals that we have in our universities because we get easy money.

This is very sad, I wish the oil dry up so that we can begin to use our brains because we have stopped using our brains and we have stopped respecting intellects because of easy money”