A former Commonwealth Secretary General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, has advocated for the practice of true federalism in Nigeria.
Anyaoku made the call in Lagos at the inaugural dialogue and book presentation in honour of retired Justice Chinwe Iyizoba, the founder, African Women’s Forum for Good Governance.
A statement on Saturday by the organiser of the event, Karenate Egbuson, quoted Anyaoku as saying at the event, which held on Thursday, that the Nigerian state did better when it was a true federation of four regions.
Anyaoku stated, “I believe our government structure is sound but the mode of operation is the challenge that the country faces. We have a structure that can cope with the challenges the country faces; the challenge of security, the challenge of climate change, and economic challenge. But as I have said all the time, the present structure is not efficient and cannot successfully cope with the challenges the country faces.
“I have been advocating a restructuring of the architecture of governance in our country. I think this country was doing a lot better when it was a true federation of four regions. Each region was coping with its development, coping with its security, and coping with its education and health facilities. We should return because the present structure, in my view, is not likely to lead us to where we want to get to.”
He commended Iyizoba, saying, “She is an intellectually active judge, and I hope now that she is going into retirement, she is going to write books and push this initiative of the African Women Forum for good governance; I am sure she will go a long way with that.”
The former governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi, said if a country got everything right and its politics and governance wrong, everything would go wrong.
He said, “The problems we are facing have nothing to do with the government structure. We may have a structure problem, yes, we have issues, but once we have good human beings involved in governance, these problems will be solved.”
