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Experts decry high cost of governance, call for restructuring of Nigeria

By Lucky Orioha and Benjamin Alade
18 July 2016   |   2:30 am
Management experts have commended the current effort of the government towards diversification of the economy, saying a successful diversification is needed ...

Nigerian-Economy

Management experts have commended the current effort of the government towards diversification of the economy, saying a successful diversification is needed to achieve meaningful development.

According to them, however, the diversification cannot be achieved without restructuring of the country.

Speaking at the 2016 Management lecture organised by Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM), Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, ICON Stockbrokers and formal President of Institute of Directors (IoD), Nigeria, Chike Nwanze said, “Nigeria needs to restructure it’s constitutional amendment while ensuring equity, good governance and economic prosperity in the nation.

He decried the high cost of governance over the past 17 years, which he described as excessive waste to the economy.

According to him, the total expenditures of the various arms of Government from 1999 to 2015 cost the nation about N55.4 trillion annually.

“It is difficult to believe that such colossal amount of money have been spent in the last 17 years or so given the continued poor state of infrastructure, services, and quality of life in Nigeria.

“The Nigerian structure promotes waste, lack of accountability and high cost of governance. The political system and its manner of remunerating political appointees make the cost of governance prohibitive and probably unsustainable. It is the residue of the revenues devoted to office holders and public employees that is available for development and this is usually about 40 per cent.

Nwanze said, the present 36 States and 774 local governments structure for Nigeria is faulty, considering the fact that most of the states or local governments are not viable without federal government support.

Moving forward, he said Nigeria needs a new political arrangement thereby seeking a restructure of the Nigerian polity through constitutional amendment while ensuring equity, good governance and economic prosperity in our nation.

“Federal Government needs to dismantle the existing 36 States and restructure it into six regional governments, he stated.

Earlier in his remarks, the President and Chairman of Council, Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered), Prof. Munzali Jibril, reiterated that Nigeria needs an urgent solution to the leadership challenges besetting it as a nation which threaten her economic, infrastructural and ethical revolution.

According to him, the Institute decided to take this leading role of getting the nation out of the leadership maze it has found itself in because it believes that the task of setting the country on the right path should not be left to government alone.

He called on corporate organisations and individuals to take a cue from the initiative of the Institute to rescue the country from the jaws of leadership inertia.

“We must all support the effort of government if Nigeria must rise and shine again.

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