Soludo

A former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof Charles Soludo, on Wednesday called on the Federal Government to implement the All Progressives Congress (APC) Committee’s report on restructuring as a step to reposition the country.

Soludo made the call in Lagos while delivering the inaugural lecture of Ndigbo Lagos Foundation with the theme “The Political Economy of Restructuring the Nigerian Federation”.

Recall that the APC Committee on True Federalism was constituted by the Party in August 2017.

It was set up to consider and make recommendations to the National Working Committee on key items relating to the Nigerian Federation and the agitations for “True Federalism” or “Restructuring”.

The committee submitted its report to the party in January 2018.

Soludo said some of the recommendations of the committee, headed by Gov. Nasir -El-Rufai, held great promises for the country’s development.

He said if such recommendations as creation of state police, resource control and abolishment of the local government system were implemented, the country would be set on the path of progress in just three months.

The ex-CBN governor said the APC had the opportunity to walk its talk on restructuring to reposition the country, as it controlled the government.

Soludo said: “As a first step to restructure the country, let us start with a low hanging fruit — the APC ‘s minimum template.

“The APC Committee on Restricturing has many interesting recommendations, but three stand out.

“It is our opinion that this will be a significant step forward.

“So, what is holding action on this?The APC currently controls 24 states or thereabouts plus a majority at the National Assembly .

“The import of this is that if the APC as a political party decides to walk its talk, it can give Nigeria these changes within three months or before the end of 2018.

“Now that the bill for state police is before the National Assembly, why can’t we follow up with the other ones?”

He said that the political class was not committed to the agenda of restructuring because they feared it would dismantle their privileges in the current structure.

The former CBN governor said there was the need to abandon such inertia to act in the interest of this country.

Soludo said what politicians had demonstrated as the 2019 elections approached was theatre and little substance.

He said there was the need to put restructuring as part of the ballot for the election in the interest of progress.

A former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaokwu, who chaired the occasion, urged citizens to be committed to the Nigerian project.

He said the country would be where everyone wanted to be if all played their part.

The Secretary of Ndigbo Lagos Foundation, Mr Chima Igwe, said the lecture was organised to celebrate the end of the six-year tenure of Prof. Anya O.Anya as President of the foundation.

He said the lecture would be a periodic programme to stimulate discourse on moving Nigeria forward.