Tag: Anyaoku

Former Commonwealth Secretary General Emeka Anyaoku yesterday backed President Muhammadu Buhari’s stand on the devaluation of the naira.

He said those calling for official devaluation of the naira need to come up with a good answer to Nigeria’s present situation.

The ex-Commonwealth chief insisted that for Nigeria’s federalism to work there must be restructuring.

Anyaoku spoke yesterday in Akure, the Ondo State capital, at a lecture to mark the state’s 40th anniversary.

Others who spoke at the event hosted by Governor Olusegun Mimiko, who is also marking his seventh year in office, include Senators Shehu Sani and Ben Murray-Bruce; former Minister for Information Labaran Maku, former Labour Party National Chairman Dan Nwanyanwu and a Public Policy analyst Yadoma Bukak Mandara.

The theme of the event is “Curtailing Nigeria’s Centrifugal forces.”

Anyaoku said: “My view is that adopting true federalism will enable us achieve speedy development and political stability.

“This would reduce the enablement of Centrifugal forces in Nigeria.”

On the economy, he urged President Muhammadu Buhari to convene an emergency meeting with economic experts to proffer solutions to the nation’s economic crisis.

“The present level of the country’s dependence on imported goods results in a monthly import bill that is four times the value of our main export, which is traded in dollars.

“ Official devaluation of the naira will produce a further rise in inflation to the detriment of all of us, especially the masses.

“In such circumstances, devaluation will lead to a decline of our country’s external reserve, which is already depleted.

“The challenges are to help us devise policies to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign goods,” he said.

Sani said the government must learn to do things differently.

Murray-Bruce said: “Before 1960 we had state police. And during the regional system, the west, east and north were doing fine.

“Now, we have come together but 55 per cent of the budget is spent by the Federal Government and we are starving the states to death.

“We must change the federal system to reflect what really make sense.

“And people must learn to impeach governors who do not judiciously spend the fund.”

Maku said: “We cannot allow the country to fail because the nation is important to black people.”

He noted that centrifugal forces had been undermining the nation’s development, saying the nation needs a leader who can rise beyond any fractionalisation.

“For an heterogeneous nation like Nigeria, we need to debate a basis of that rhythm such that if you are  Yoruba, Igbo or Ijaw you can believe in the country because you are guaranteed justice, equal representation and equal respect in the federation,” Maku said.

Mandara said the government must ensure it values the lives of Nigerians.

The governor said until the country is restructured, nothing will change.

•Obasanjo: governors diverting local govt funds 

Former Commonwealth Secretary General Chief Emeka Anyaoku yesterday advocated the use of the six geo-political zones as federating units instead of the 36 states.

To Anyaoku, Nigeria’s federalism is “deformed”. Instead of piecemeal amendment, the National Assembly should do a wholesale reform of the Constitution, the elder statesman advised.

Anyaoku, who said he spoke from his experience as an international civil servant of many years standing, was delivering a keynote address at the Inaugural Conference of the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy.

At the conference was former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who accused governors of diverting funds meant for the local government.

Anyaoku described the constitution as unitary-federal.

He recalled that the regional federating units fared better in the First Republic, with healthy competition among the regions.

He said: “Instead of the present structure of 36 economically unviable states with concentrated political power at the centre, the National Assembly should convert the existing six geopolitical zones, which have been recognised and are being used for a number of political decisions and actions, into the more viable federating units of a truly Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“The 36 states can be retained as development zones within the region but without full administrative paraphernalia. And it would be up to the six federating regions to consider and meet any demands for the creation of new development zones within them.

“As more viable units for planning and attracting investments in larger development projects, the six regions will facilitate the necessary shift from the present philosophy and reliance by the 36 states on “sharing national cake,” to focusing on production and internally generated revenue within the regions. In addition, internal security and crime control can be more effectively managed by the people in the regions who know and are more familiar with the local environment.”

In the proposed model, Anyaoku recommended that the Federal Government should retain exclusive power on certain matters and related institutions, including finance and monetary policy, defence, foreign affairs, immigration, customs, aviation, maritime and minerals (liquid and solid).

Others are internal security (but liaising with regional security agencies), judiciary (but only the Supreme Court), education (but only federal universities and supervision of standards for all tertiary institutions), health (only federal teaching hospitals, including at least one state-of-the -art specialist hospital in every region) and federal highways and railways.

He proposed an allocation sharing formula of 40 per cent for the Federal Government and the balance of 60 per cent to be shared equally by the six regions.

Obasanjo gave a damning report on why development is stunted in Nigeria: governors divert local government allocations to other uses.

He insisted that chief among the many problems plaguing the presidential system of government is the alleged diversion of funds meant for projects by governors which consequently renders the 774 local governments impotent. He added that governors have rendered public institutions irrelevant.

Obasanjo posited that Nigerians are yet to imbibe the values of the presidential system which he said is able to address diversities in the country as well as capable of helping to galvanise resources to develop the Nigeria of our dream.

Pointing to the financial challenges confronting the country due to the fall in the price of crude oil, Obasanjo said: “It is indeed proper for us in Nigeria to ask the question: Is the government working? Is government positioned to deal with challenges arising from these new developments?

“Is there good governance in the 36 states of the federation where some governors have become sole administrators, acting like emperors? These governors have rendered public institutions irrelevant and useless. Is there development work going on in the 774 constitutionally recognised local government councils which are known to have been appropriated as private estates of the governor’s?

“And of course, when governors take their money, the chairmen of the councils take the balance of the money, put it on the table and share it out among council members. In some local governments, have the governors not hijacked most of the resources in them and expended them to serve their whims and caprices instead of using the resources to galvanize growth and development?

“Have we embraced the principles and values of the presidential system of government such as to enable us to realize our vision of a great country? Instead of the waste that we experience, has the National Assembly been able to live up to its role as an agent of oversight and public accountability?

“When are we going to be able to practise federalism in a way that promotes healthy competition among the states for the benefit of the citizens? When are we going to subordinate partisanship to collective goals and deploy the full potentials of our diversity to advance public causes that serve the aspirations of the teeming masses of our people crying under the cringe of poverty, disease, unemployment and neglect? When shall we all unite around the Nigerian dreaming our quest to be the giant which God has graciously endowed us to be?

“Why is it that every model that has worked elsewhere never seem to work sustainably in Nigeria? I can go on and on.”

In his welcome address, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy, Dr Tunji Olaopa, explained that the idea of the special school was borne out of the experience he gathered in about three decades in the public service.

Guest Speaker Prof. Richard Joseph also offered eight areas of possible focus for the school. They are state systems in the political order, optimization and productive innovation, claiming democracy and social wealth. The others are federalism and conglomerate government, democratic development governance, religion and public sphere as well as collective security.

At the conference were Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi, who was represented by his deputy, Chief Moses Alake-Adeyemo; Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr Kayode Fayemi; Prof. Akin Mabogunje, who is the Chairman of the school’s Board of Directors; Prof. Pat Utomi; Prof. Alaba Ogunsanwo; Prof. Jide Osuntokun; former Minister of Education, Prof. Tunde Adeniran; Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Prof. Abel Olayinka; former Head of Service, Prof. Oladipo Afolabi and Mr Odia Ofeimun.

Others are former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, Prof. Peter Okebukola; Prof. Ostia Ogbu; Dr Yemi Farounbi and former Minister of Communication, Mrs Omobola Johnson, among others .The conference continues today.

 

Former Secretary General of Commonwealth Chief Emeka Anyaoku said yesterday that Nigerians, who travel abroad and disobey the laws of their host countries, are responsible for any fate that befalls them.

Speaking with reporters after a meeting with President-elect Muhammadu Buhari refused to blame the Indonesian government for executing four Nigerians.

He said: “The debacle in Indonesia is not a foreign policy issue, but an issue of the behavior of Nigerians. Nigerians will go to Indonesia and other countries like Malaysia, Thailand, they have a law that if u gets involved in drug promotion, the penalty is capital punishment.

“The president of Indonesia will tell you that every drug pusher is responsible for the ruination of 200 families and that’s why his country has taken that cue. So, it’s a matter of the behaviour of Nigerian citizens abroad, rather than foreign policy.”

On his meeting with Buhari, he said: “I had useful discussions with the president-elect, congratulated him on his victory and told him he is coming in as president with a very high wave of expectations throughout the country.”