….Urged federal Government to go back to regional structure
BY ADEYEMI ROBINSON-ADEFIOYE, LAGOS
The Senior Pastor of the Trinity Gospel Church, PASTOR ITUAH IGHODALO has advised the Federal Government to go back to the regional structure of government and allow the Regions to integrate among themselves and develop at their own pace. This he said brings into question Resource control. The region should be allowed to control a significant proportion of its resources while contributing a certain percentage to the Federal Government.
PASTOR IGHODALO in an exclusive interview with www.sunrisetimes.com.ng said the main challenge was the country dependency on crude oil.
According to him, the South-South is seemingly oil rich, which is understandable but the Federal Government should fine-tune the Resource to reflect and allow about 10 years period for gradual readjustment so that other regions can use that period to develop their own natural resources which is significantly available to them to focus on.
IGHODALO who is also an economics expert stressed that if the government can plan and fine tune the regional structure well, the country would take another step forward from where it stopped.
He said the government can also decide to treat crude oil as a special resource, the region itself should be allowed to control it significant proportion of its resources while contributing a certain percentage to the federal government.
While other resources would be given 70-30 percentage sharing allocation formula with the Federal government, oil may do 50-50 percentage to put an end to the bickering and acrimony in the country. He said this would allow investors to move around the country to partner with whichever region they choose to partner with.
“There is a lot of talk on restructuring , I personally feel that Nigeria should go back to the regional structure that it had and allow regions to integrate among themselves and develop at their own pace which bring to question of resource control. I think the region itself should be allow to control it significant proportion of its resources while contributing a certain percentage to the federal state, it used to be 60- 40 percentage and it would be taken from there.
“ I think the main challenge would be our dependency on crude oil at a point in time, the South-South been steamily sole oil rich, well that is understandable but I think that can be a special case where the derivation and the resource is reflected over a certain period maybe a ten year period to have a gradual readjustment so that other regions can use that period to also develop their own Natural resource which is significantly available to them if they would only focus on it, If we all plan it very well and time it very well, we can take it up from there and if you want, treat oil as a special resource while other resource will be producing 70 to 30 percentage and oil may do fifty- fifty percent which will end all these bickering and acrimony and of course anybody from any region can go anywhere” he said.
IGHODALO who is also a Managing Partner of SIAO; a firm that provides accounting and other financial services, said lack of exposure and education have been the bane of development in Nigeria.
Stating “if everybody is knowledgeable enough, the issue of accountability and transparency would be dealt with, if the citizens of the country could arise and demand the government for proper accountability and transparency, the government would sit tight and govern properly because the citizens who elected them into power would question their deeds at the end of the show.
“The problem with Nigerians is lack of knowledge and high level of ignorance. People are not exposed and educated, some people say some of these cases are deliberate, but I think there is enough knowledge all over the world for people to pull themselves up and demand for education and knowledge. If everybody was knowledgeable enough then this situation of accountability and transparency will be dealt with and we can all sit and demand our government proper accountability, proper transparency.
“ One of the reasons people in power get away with what they get away with is that the ordinary citizens don’t ask them for anything, they don’t demand them for accountability, they don’t insist because they are ignorant.
‘’ So we must enlighten our people, expose them and let them demand for their rights, that is why in Europe, in America, Canada, Australia, even we saw the recent example of Hong Kong, you cannot just do anything and get away with it because everybody knows their rights, everybody knows the constitution, everybody knows what they stand-on , it is only in Nigeria a policeman will arrest somebody because that person did not know, he or she spent one year awaiting trial in detention
“it cannot happen in those developed countries because there is a law that guides their people, if someone is arrested he or she will be detained for maximum of 24 hours while every Police processes the person need to do has been done and the person will be release on bail because he or she is innocent until the person is proven guilty.
“But in Nigeria you see poor innocent man, he doesn’t know anybody, police detains him for 2 years, nobody can find him, it is inhuman and we cannot continue to be inhuman to each other just because some people say some people are nobody, they don’t have a voice.
“ Well, I have seen some so-called big man who does very terrible things, because he is a big man, they always left him, let him go scot-free, even after trial you lock him up, put him in a hospital, or guest house and he or she living large on government money, all these things are unfair, they are unrighteous, there should be the same law and the same rule for everybody according to the constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria” IGHODALO said.
He emphasized that nobody in his sincere mind would agree that the state of the country’s economy is alright. The nation is witnessing a mass exodus of some of it best hands to other parts of the world, adding that these hands are doing well wherever they go because the atmosphere in Nigeria is unaccommodating.
He said the so called Economic Managers have not done a good job so far because they are really not qualified for the positions where they found themselves, some are not really interested or willing in managing the economy for the benefits of all but are just interested in sharing a national cake.
According to IGHODALO these two things have combined to make the Nigerian economy very low, “lets take Power for example, a lot of money have been voted for power supply without any good result because the real government we expect to do the right thing is not there and some people are still making money from inefficiencies and from some funny laws and government is ready to harmonize them together” he said.
“they are playing politics with the tariffs. All these things cannot work, they must bite the bullets to face the truth and deal with our structural issues if Nigeria is going to progress” IGHODALO concluded.
