By The practical guide for restructuring Nigeria series 1
By Mbe Mbanga
Let me offer my practical thoughts on how we can get out of the present Nigerian socio-political quagmire.
This is the 2017 budget estimate of the SE states:
Abia 102.5 bn
Anambra 115.5 bn
Ebonyi 127.2 bn
Enugu 105 bn
Imo 131 bn
SE total 581.2 billion.
So what do we do?
Remove the governors and deputy governors in the 5 states and create one governor for the entire SE with capital in Enugu.Merge the 5 House of Assembly into one house and let each LGA send one representative to the SE House of Assembly.We have 95 LGAs in the SE so we will have 95 legislative members.
Merge the civil service into one.We would save a minimum of 450 billion naira(more than $1bn) in this year recurrent budget of the SE.This will be ploughed into infrastructure.We can identify 5 priority projects for this year in each state and put 85 billion each on them.
We do so again next year and the year after.In ten years we will be competing with Dubai.
Get all other geopolitical zones to repeat this process for ten years.Nigeria becomes a new country and an economic power.
If this is successful in the first two years,we write a new constitution with the 1963 constitution as a template and subject it to a constitutional referendum.Nigeria becomes a country of 6 states as federating units.Each state with it’s own constitution and keeps 50% of it’s revenues,send 30% to a distributable account and 20% to the FG.Each state can have it’s own police if they want and fix it’s own roads,schools, universities etc.
The National Assembly become a unicameral legislature with 109 members drawn from the existing senatorial districts.SE state can rename itself Biafra state.SW can become Odua ,SS Niger Delta,NW Arewa,NC Middle Belt,NE Kanem-Bornu state.
Nigeria returns to parliamentary democracy and become one of the world’s top 10 economic power house in just over a decade.
Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi
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