Former Central Bank Governor, Charles Soludo has called on the Federal Government to implement the All Progressives Congress (APC) Committee report on restructuring as a step in the right direction to repositioning the country.
Mr. Soludo admonished the Federal Government during an inaugural lecture he delivered at the Ndigbo Lagos Foundation with the theme “The Political Economy of Restructuring the Nigerian Federation”.
The APC had constituted a Committee on True Federalism in August 2017. The committee 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/Restructuring.
The committee had submitted its report to the party in January 2018 and nothing has been heard about the report ever since.
In his admonition to the Federal Government, Mr. Soludo reiterated that some of the recommendations of the committee, headed by Gov. Nasir -El-Rufai, held great promises for the overall development of the country.
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 within three months.
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Mr. Soludo further pointed out that the APC had every chance to implement the report as it is presently in control of the government.
Mr. 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 Restructuring has many interesting recommendations, but three stand out. It is our opinion that this will be a significant step forward.”
He continued further, “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 opined that the political class was not committed to the agenda of restructuring because they feared it would dismantle the privileges they enjoyed within the current structure but there was a need to abandon such inertia to act in the interest of this country.
While making references to the recent drama in Nigeria’s political atmosphere, Soludo said what politicians had demonstrated as the 2019 elections approached was all theatre and little substance.