Politics
By Anthony Isibor.
PROFESSOR Anya O. Anya, a former director-general of the Nigeria Economic Sumit Group has lent his voice to the clamour for restructuring the country, saying that it is the way out of the numerous challenges facing the nation.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Realnews in Lagos, Anya argued that until the country is divided into manageable slices with a leader who is literate in economic issues, it may never be able to surpass the two major challenges of economy and insecurity.
Although the professor agreed that the problems in the country are not the same in each locality, he, however, noted that effective coordination by an economically sound leader at the national level, while the states take care of the peculiarities in their environment, before the country could be salvaged.
According to him, there are things that can be done in each locality and the problems are not the same in each locality.
“First, we must get the best economic minds in the country together and face the situation, and draw up short term plans. Let’s say one, two, three, by the time you have carried out those, you would have stabilized the place, then you can go on a longer term plan.
“Then governance system itself, people have been shouting about restructuring, the truth of the matter is that where we are now, the federal government alone is incapable of handling; whether it is the economic problem, or the security problem.
“Therefore there must be devolution of authority to the lower levels, to the zonal level, and perhaps to the state level, each one trying to contend its own. Right now, everybody including the state are looking up to the federal government, they expect the federal police to come, the army to come, and so on.
“You need to get to the point where each state takes charge of its environment and the problem how it can stabilize itself. Then the coordination is at the zonal and the national level.
“Unless you have that kind of devolution of authority, I don’t want to get constitutional, that’s why I am using the devolution of authority. There are things that the president can do by executive order, and you give more responsibility to the states.
“You create a new forum of consolidation at the zonal level. There are only six zones, it approximates to the regions, but you will be driving the country in manageable slices,” he added.
Prof. Anya is the founding Director-General of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group.
He was also the Chairman of the Governing Board of the Nigerian National Merit Award and former President of the Nigerian Academy of Science.
AI.
Apr. 16, 2022 @ 17:32 GMT
Tags: Prof. Anya O. Anya
