The lead speaker and chairman of Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Itse Sagay, linked the foundation of the country’s stagnation to disequilibrium among the geo-political zones, saying the ongoing call for restructuring was a timely reminder of the need for political re-organisation and true federalism. Sagay, in his two-part paper titled: Good governance and restructuring, disagreed with the view of the former Nigeria permanent representative to the United Nations (UN), Prof Ibrahim Gambari, who believed the development disparity and poverty rate between the North and South was as a result of inequality in school enrolment and childhood diseases which put the North at disadvantage compared to the South. Gambari was absent at the event, but his paper was read in parts by Sagay. The PACAC chairman described development challenges facing the North as self-inflicted, stressing that the leadership style of northern elite and traditional rulers caused to the region’s woes. Sagay said: “When the national campaign for immunisation of children against polio disease was on, the northern elite vigorously resisted the programme and falsely alleged that it was the European plot to curtail the fertility of northerners and to reduce their comparative population relative to the rest of the country. They even killed members of the team deployed to immunise their children. “The same belief applies to education. There is a culture in the North that encourages uncontrolled production of children without the accompanying commitment to send them to school. Instead, their children are abandoned and turned Almajiris.” In response to the question of poverty in the North, Sagay pointed out that the northern states draw more funds from the federation account compared to the whole of the South. He said the North has more local government and states than the South, wondering why poverty remained prominent in the North. He said: “It is the northern rulers and governing elite that are suppressing and oppressing their own people, preparing them for a life of poverty, disease and poor education. These are peculiarly northern problems and the North forms part of the Nigeria’s national conundrum.” Sagay said the current challenges facing the nation called for actions to promote good governance and restructuring. He noted that Nigeria took off as country with unique potential for accelerated development, adding that the First Republic politicians in all regions governed with honesty and commitment to common good. He, however, said the value of governance declined after the First Republic was aborted as a result of political intolerance, saying the nation became the caricature of poverty, destitution and suffering humanity. Sagay said the political elite is lacking in vision and integrity. He pointed particularly at the current Senate, which he described as a house of visionless and parasitic leaders who have no integrity. He said the prefix – Distinguished – attached to each senator’s name was undeserving and an abuse of the term. He said: “Our current ruling class, particularly the Senate, has no value, no honour, no vision, no integrity and no compassion for the suffering of the Nigerian masses. The attachment of ‘distinguished’ to their names is a horrible bastardisation and gross abuse of the use of that term. I reject it with contempt when anyone addresses with that unfortunate term.” Sagay, a professor of Constitutional Law, faulted the nation version of constitutional democracy, describing it as a un. itary system. He said the nation’s “inconsistent federalism” is subjecting the states to financial subordination of the Federal Government. He called for restructuring and enthronement of true federalism to make federating unit viable. He said opposition to restructuring is a fear of losing cheap money coming from the Niger Delta’s crude oil. Chief Economic Adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Prof Philip Asiodu, in his paper titled: Repositioning education in Nigeria for peace and development, said the Federal Government needed to restructure the education system to promote development. The event’s chief host and former Vice-Chancellor of University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), Prof Umaru Shehu, HLF has made Nigeria a decent society by instilling values of patriotism and honesty in young people. The chairman of the occasion and former Secretary-General of Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, observed that there was need to return History as a compulsory subject in schools to enable the youth learn about the efforts of the nation’s founding fathers. He said the Foundation had produced 51 role models since its inception. Others dignitaries at the event included the Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, former Joint Admission and Matriculation Board Registrar, Prof Oladipo Akinkugbe, first woman Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Folake Solanke, former VC of University of Lagos (UNILAG), Prof Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe, and foremost geographer, Prof Akin Mabogunje, among others.]]>
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