Former President, Institute of Directors, IOD, and Vice chairman/Chief Executive Officer, ICON Stockbrokers Limited, Mr. Chike Nwanze, has called for restructuring of the 36 states in the country into six regional governments.
President Buhari commissions Road Projects in Wanke Zamfara State President Buhari Nwanze, who made the call at the 2016 Nigeria Institute of Management lecture, tagged ‘The Leadership Question and the Challenges Ahead’ in Lagos, said “I propose that apart from the Federal Government, the existing 36 States should be dismantled and restructured into six regional governments.”
According to him, the six regions should be North Western, North Eastern, North Central, South Western, South Eastern, South-South. He further said that the 36 States should be reverted to provinces, adding that new provinces could be created later, if necessary.
“The 774 local governments should be expunged from the Constitution and each region should determine the number of Local Government Areas they require, each region is to have its own constitution and revenue allocation should be based on derivation,” he said.
He noted that a lot of resources abound in the six geo-political zones to the extent that if they were harnessed, they would not only be a strong foundation, but also a spring-board for the structural transformation for economic growth and development of the people and the nation.
Commenting on the leadership progress, Nwanze said that the fact that Nigeria, the seventh largest producer of crude oil in the world, imports fuel was a sign of leadership failure or misrule.
“I feel it has become critical today more than ever to address the challenges of political governance and the structure of the federation as these leadership challenges have retarded our development.”
On the cost of governance, he said that “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.” (Vanguard)
