I’m still looking for ‘Aso Rock cabal’, says Osinbajo

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo says he does not know where members of the cabal in the presidency are, but he is looking for them.

Speaking at the presidential villa in Abuja during an interactive session with TheCable and some media houses, Osinbajo, who spoke on a humorous note, said “cabals are meant to be secret”.

“Cabals are meant to be secret. I am still looking for those guys. Honestly, I don’t know where they are. I can’t tell you that I know where those fellows are,” he said.

He also responded to a question on whether or not he has a free hand as the chairman of the National Economic Council (NEC).

“Let me explain that we have a many sided economy. If you look at issues around macro–economy, I am chairman of the economic management team. It means that I supervise the team that runs the economy. But there are many aspects of the Nigerian economy,” he said.

“We have the states which are running different functions. We have the central bank which is autonomous. We do not control what central bank does. Of course we try to influence their policy, and we try to see how we can contribute to the fiscal policy and monetary policy. We also try to dictate the pace, but there are issues that we allow the bank to decide.

“To the extent that I supervise the economy, one has a relatively free hand. It’s just like a man having several companies… Like I said earlier, monetary policy is controlled by the CBN and in the micro–economic aspect, we have several competent people who are in charge. But I am involved on a daily basis in the running of the economy. We are trying to see how we can get out of recession and sustain growth.”

Osinbajo also spoke about targets of the economic council and strategies put in place to turn the fortunes of the country around for the better.

“To a certain extent, we have targets at our meetings in NEC.  We look at various issues and see how we can make impact. For instance, in agriculture we are looking at how we can make impact. For example we are looking at how we can ramp up rice production, and our target is self–sufficiency in those areas by 2018,” he said.