Presidential aspirant canvasses ‘economic restructuring’

The on-going debate on restructuring of the country took another dimension yesterday with a recommendation from a presidential hopeful of the Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP), Tope Fasua that the process should start with economic restructuring.
The presidential aspirant, who is an economist, argued during a chat on a national television programme that, restructuring should be a continuous activity in the country and not be tarried till there is clamour for it from different quarters.
According to him, the country had always been restructured since 1900 “when Nigeria was sold to the Royal Niger Company but with the military intervention into politics over the years, the process had died down,” noting that even with the return of democracy in 1999, the leaders could not think along that line as the national political conference which could have addressed the issues could not be implemented.
He expressed concern that since then, the federal revenue allocation formula has not been changed, arguing that with the reality on ground, the federal government does not need more than 25 per cent, while the states take 26 to 35 per cent and the local governments with real work load, to be given 40 per cent.
Fasua argued that those in governance could be restructured away from siphoning the resources at their disposal, if there is an agreement that every three to four years, the furniture would be turned around.
He opined that all the ministries should be publishing their accounts for accountability as it is obtainable in other climes such as USA.
He said: “since the introduction of the Joint Accounts, local governments have been doing worse; development is only in the cities and the rural areas are dead; we have to make sure that those in the local areas are not living like wild animals.
It is sad that state governments are sitting on the neck of local governments.”