Anyaoku Fears

FORMER Secretary General of the Commonwealth Chief Emeka

has expressed the fear that issues being thrown up by the Boko Haram insurgency in some parts of the country may adversely affect Nigeria’s relationship with other nations of the world with whom she had enjoyed cordiality. Anyaoku who was special guest of honour at Island Club’s Diplomats Night on Tuesday lamented that security challenges like the terrorism in some parts of the north, and the kidnapping of locals and foreign nationals have become the painful point of contact with and communication about Nigeria and the outside world which does the country’s image no good. Expressing delight that such unsavoury developments have not managed to stop the inflow of foreign investments into the country, Anyaoku wondered how much longer the insecurity challenges could remain unsolved before they begin to hurt efforts the country has been making to attract foreign investors which to a large extent depends on Nigeria’s image abroad now being put at risk by terrorism and kidnappings. Calling for an end to the penchant Nigerians have to be in denial of the country’s basic problems, Anyaoku said the issue of political stability remains to be dealt with. He expressed doubts that said the structure of government in Nigeria as it is at present can guarantee stability and peace.

He said this could only be achieved if Nigeria practiced true federalism, stressing that a situation whereby the 36 states of the federation with the possible exception of Lagos State are economically dependent on the centre cannot make for peace and stability. “I believe, that the present structure fans the religious and the ethnic diversity we have because the competition to grab the power at the centre is destructive. “I believe that the nation should return to six federating units so that we can recapture the development and stability which we had in the immediate years after the nation’s independence when we had a federation in which the regions were sufficiently viable and sufficiently powerful to develop at their own pace.” He spoke of how prosperous the regions were, with the north thriving on hides and skins and groundnuts , the west on cocoa, the east on palm produce and the Mid west region on rubber , lamenting that all that had disappeared as Nigeria is now overwhelmingly dependent on oil. He said the return to six regions will save Nigeria the trouble of trying to invest so much resources in administration . “At the moment, the country spends over seventy per cent of its resources on administration because there are 36 States of Assemblies , 36 Judiciaries, 36 Civil Services and so on and all these are expensive and no country has developed which has spent seventy percent of its revenue on recurrent expenditure.

By Adeniyi Adunola and Tolulope Okunlola