Anyaoku blames military for Nigeria’s under-development

Former Commonwealth Secretary General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, has lamented military incursion in Nigeria’s political space, insisting the action negatively affected the nation’s development.

Speaking yesterday in Lagos during the public presentation of Challenges of good and democratic governance in Nigeria, a book in honour of renowned constitutional lawyer, Prof. Ben Nwabueze, he noted that the nation was better off during the “early years of our independence.”He said if the military had not intervened in governance, “I am sure we will be doing as well as countries that we were at the same level of development at that time namely Malaysia and South Korea. The reason is that the structure of governance in this country has not allowed us to attain political stability and develop our resources.”

The diplomat described Nwabueze as an outstanding intellectual, adding: “He is a constitutional lawyer recognised all over Africa and the world. He has written more books than I know of any constitutional lawyer.”The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar in his foreword, noted that “it is beyond contestation that Prof. Nwabueze towers above his peers as Africa’s foremost constitutional law scholar and one of the world’s leading legal minds.

“Not surprising in his foreword to Nwabueze’s awe-inspiring five volume Constitutional Democracy in Africa, Julius Nyerere, former president of Tanzania said Prof. Nwabueze’s book does not merely fill a gap or a void in the literature of African history, law, economy, politics and society, rather it creates a novel and significant niche that will for many years to come serve as a quarry for scholars and researchers seeking an explanation for the disorder and trauma that have followed the nominal transfer of power from the old colonialists to the native inheritors.“The book will place the author securely in the gallery of Africa’s great scholars.”