Professor Andrew Efemini has praised the Nasir El-Rufai-led committee report, saying that it is the greatest gift to Nigeria as it offers a rational, regional, and pragmatic state structure that will bring real control to Nigeria’s many bureaucracies.
The professor who made the comments while anchoring a phone-in radio program on 95.1 Today FM in Portharcourt on Saturday added that it is now the duty of every well meaning Nigerian to hold the Buhari-led federal government to ransom with the report.
Breaking down the contents of the report, Efemini who is a Professor of Philosophy of Development said that the report, when passed, will alter the national revenue sharing formula and change the way we have lived since 1914.
Efemini who maintained that no nation can progress if it is run on the Nigeria’s type of political structure said that it is a shame that our entire national budget for 2018 is equivalent to that of one University in the United States.
In his own words “ This is something that we have been fighting for since the 70s and it has now been handed to us on a platter of gold. I am so excited about the report because it offers a rational regional pragmatic state structure that will be most beneficial to the Niger Delta people and the rest of the country”
“The day that President Mohammedu Buhari said no to restructuring, I wrote that APC as a party should overrule the president because it is in the party’s manifesto. I said that if Nigeria does not restructure, APC will not win election. This is a clear evidence of consensus building.
“That report is a threshold for a new country. This is a sensitive year and we need to focus critically on what the politicians have for us. APC knows that the key to winning next year’s election is in implementing that report”
“It is not a party thing because the Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, who is a member of the the PDP has also supported the committee’s report”
The Professor maintained that Nigeria’s main problem is that of a faulty structure which has rendered every attempt at national development redundant.
He said that there can never be real national progress as regards economic growth and human development unless the structure is rearranged with adequate policies put in place that will give rise to real national development.
He added that restructuring will take care of the insecurity issues bedeviling the country, saying that Nigerians need to mount pressure on government to make sure that the report is passed before the end of the year as the country needs peculiar reforms especially in the judiciary.
In his response to a caller who said that the APC hastily submitted the report in order to douse tension generated by the Olusegun Obasanjo’s 13-paged letter with which he had criticized President Buhari’s lackluster leadership style, the professor countered that Obasanjo inflicted several ills on the country especially the enactment of the land use act which stripped the locals exclusive rights to their land and the resources under it.
He added that the El-Rufai’s report is something special and the opportunity should be grabbed with both hands because it offers a new beginning.
