We need good governance, accountability from our leaders – Atiku

Former Vice President and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has advocated for good governance and accountability, saying Nigerians should not be timid in this demand from their leaders as the structure of the country is a major problem dragging the Nation backward.

Atiku, who has been consistently calling for renegotiation of Nigeria as a nation, believe that there is nothing wrong in people agitating for what they see as a better federal system.

Speaking on Monday at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife as guest speaker at the annual Professor Ademola Popoola Public Lecture Faculty of Law, the Turaki Adamawa also emphasized that the perennial debates and agitations by federating units for improved positions within a federal structure is the hallmark of living.

“Our challenges are multi-faceted and the structure of the federation is only one of them, albeit a critical one. Restructuring itself will not automatically guarantee good governance. As a people, we still have to demand good governance and accountability from our leaders”, he said.

According to Atiku, a trained, educated and entrepreneurial workforce in a restructured Nigeria that empowers her federating units to look to their strengths, emphasize production and internally generated revenues, and compete with one another to attract investments will truly transform us into a respectable people. “It will help grow our economy rapidly, ensure needed employment for our young people, improve security, stabilize our politics and promote peace.

“The restructuring that I have been calling for involve changes to the allocation of powers, responsibilities and resources among the states or zones and between them and the federal government. I do not see local governments as federating units and, therefore, they should not derive their powers from the constitution. Likewise, ethnic nationalities are not federating units and any attempt to restructure the country along those lines will be unworkable. Some of our roughly 300 ethnic nationalities are big enough to constitute independent countries while some are too small to even constitute local government areas.”

The Turaki said: “We have a unique opportunity now, with all the agitation and clamor for restructuring to have a conversation that would lead to changes in the structure of our federation in order to make it stronger, enhance our unity and promote peace, security and accountable governance.

“Ours should be a federal system that delegates to the federal Government only powers and responsibilities for those matters that are better handled by a central Government such as defense, foreign affairs, inter-Governmental affairs, setting overall National economic policy and standards. Other powers and responsibilities should reside with the states, which will include the power to create and fund local governments as they deem fit.

“It is a myth to say that we do not need restructuring, that all we need is good leadership. While leadership is critical, leaders also operate within structural and institutional constraints which may impede or enhance their performance. Thus, if you have a federal structure that encourages dependency while discouraging hard work, innovation, productivity and competition, your development as a nation will be less than optimal,” he added.