How can states be more viable? This topped the agenda at the 11th Annual Lecture of a law firm, Aelex.
Speakers, including former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi, and his Cross River State counterpart, Donald Duke, said states needed to innovate to survive.
Former National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairman Prof. Chidi Odinkalu faulted the creation of some states, saying they were designed to fail ab initio.
“History of the emergence of the states show that there was a designed flaw and if we don’t fix it, we are not going to make any headway,” he said.
They said there was an increasing disconnect between the government and the citizenry. They also decried the lack of visionary leadership, lack of planning, poor procurement process and lack of credible electoral processes.
They identified an over-bloated civil service and lack of accountability as the major factors militating against stability, growth and viability of most states.
Duke lamented the increasing disconnect between the government and the governed, saying it was a major cause of weakness in the present states structure.
According to him, the state of affairs in the country was contrary to the dreams of the founding fathers. He called for a collective vision towards realising an ideal state.
Obi said leadership was key to viable states.
“The first thing we must do to make the States work has to do with the vision of trhe leader. If the elected leader has a vision of what to do, being the driver, he can whip everybody into line.
“Our politicians make campaign promises, but the moment we are elected into the office, they come up with all forms of agenda, some four point agenda, others two or six point agenda as the case may be.
“In doing this, there is no coordination; there is no planning, no coordinated plans on how to grow the States in terms of resources and manpower
“When I assumed office, there was no office, there was no Governor’s Lodge and I called Dr. Chris Ngige and said, Chris, where is your office and he responded: ‘Peter, you are now the Governor. Wherever you are, that is the office.’
“I remembered that Nigeria is a signatory to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and with that document, you have everything a state needs to grow.
“So I picked it and used it to develop a strategy called Anambra State Integrated Development Strategy (ANIDS).
“That was the process that allowed me to look into each goal properly, study how to deliver it how to budget for it and make life easy for the masses. I made it people driven, went to each community in the State and asked each of them what do you need in this community and so on.”
Obi regretted a situation where leaders come into the office without plans of what to do for the people.
He urged leaders to sit down, reduce costs of governance, look at the peculiar needs of their states and embark on projects that would impact on the lives of the people
Former Access Bank chief Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede emphasised the need to effectively manage state resources.
“There is a need for a set of rules and dynamics on which you agree on how to allocate resources in the system. Jurisprudence of governance has a common principle; people who we choose to manage the resources must be prudent.
“The electoral system must be transparent and credible. The mode and method of creating the states must make them viable unlike what we have had in the past.
“We have an electoral system that has not worked so well, it has not produced the best from among us. Most governors you area beholding are just waiting for Federal allocation, they just plan around it and nothing more.
“Leadership is the solver of human problems; you need a Governor who sees beyond this point, who sees into the future irrespective of national vision. Any Governor who does have a vision isn will not know how to attract foreign investors; he will not know how to conduct credible electoral system and will be a dampener of visions. Every State to improve its areas of strengths, producing goods and services on which it has a comparative advantage over other states,” Aig-Imoukhuede said.
Another speaker, Mr. Isaac Babatunde, emphasised accountability, saying that those who run the states were not held accountable by the masses.
He said: “Until we start living within our income, we cannot move forward. And unless we create a critical mass like Singapore by which we get intelligent and qualified people to lead us, we will not work as states.”
Aelex Managing Partner, Mr. Theophilu Emuwa, thanked all participants for finding time to attend the lecture.
A partner at the firm, Mrs. Funke Adekoya (SAN) expressed satisfaction with the turn out, stating that the vision of the law firm’s founders was achieved.
