We don’t have national plan - El-Rufai laments

- Kaduna stat governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has warned against brain drain in Nigeria

- El-Rufai said Nigeria has lost its thinking initiative because it's making easy money from oil

- He said he wishes the Nigeria oil will dry up soon so that the people can start using their brains

Kaduna state governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has blamed the brain drain in Nigeria on the nation's dependence on the proceeds of oil which he calls 'easy money'.

El-Rufai, who spoke at Ibadan during the 2017 town hall founder’s day celebration in memory of Ojetunji Aboyade, a renowned economist, said that the one of the nation's biggest problem is oil money, TheCable reports.

He also complained about the nation's failure to plan for the future which he claims if care is not taken, will lead to certain failure.

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 21%. 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.

“How can we promote a national subscription to meritocracy? How can we ensure that the imperative of reflecting federal character does not become the enemy of merit and quality of appointments? Today, we don’t plan. We don’t have national plan and if we don’t plan, we are planning to fail.

“Having suffered brain drain, how do we attract back our Diaspora and the brain-gain associated with it like the Chinese and Indians have witnessed? These are the questions a distributive mentality around easy oil revenues is dodging.

“The earlier the oil dries up the better for our national ability to think, be innovative and respect intellect and academic achievement.”

Meanwhile, a chieftain of the APC, Comrade Timi Frank, has cautioned the presidency not to fall for the antics of Governor Nasir El-rufai.

In a statement sent to STATIONtv News on Saturday, September 9, Frank stated that the governor has a record of betraying all his benefactors.

He also warned that the claim by the governor of a "Buharist's group" amounts to a disservice to other Nigerians who genuinely love the president.