Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has said he is praying for Nigeria’s oil to dry up.
He said the wealth accruing from it was a major hindrance to innovation.
El-Rufai stated this while speaking in Ibadan on Saturday, at the 2017 Town Hall Meeting/Founder’s Day celebration, in memory of renowned economist, Professior Ojetunji Aboyade.
The Governor explained that when the oil wells dry up, the government and people will become serious about developing the country.
“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 will 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,” El-Rufai said.
On policing, he said: “It is obvious that Nigeria is severely under-policed, and will require more personnel, intelligence assets, better training, technology and equipment for its security agencies for the country to be a credible guarantor of security.
“Even if these were to be available, it is also debatable whether a single centralised policing system, structure and staffing for 200 million citizens is viable in a diverse, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-ethnic nation like Nigeria.”
