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Restructuring not solution to Nigeria’s problems – Utomi

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress and former presidential candidate, Prof. Pat Utomi, on Monday said restructuring alone would not solve Nigeria’s development challenges.

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress and former presidential candidate, Prof. Pat Utomi, on Monday said restructuring alone would not solve Nigeria’s development challenges.

He made the statement while speaking at The Platform, a national discourse forum organised by the Covenant Christian Centre in Lagos.

Utomi said empirical evidence showed no correlation between more resources and development in the country. He explained that some states with less resources were more developed than some resource-rich states.

The APC chieftain, therefore, said that the belief that the states would do better with more resources was a myth.
He added that only those states that made the people the core of their government would develop.

Utomi decried the costs of governance at the various levels of government, saying that the situation was a drain on the country’s resources.

He described governance in most states as poor, while saying local governments in the country were dysfunctional.
“The local governments in the country are dysfunctional and are a bloody waste of resources,” he said.

The former presidential aspirant said the country needed to be restructured in a way that the costs of governance would be reduced, so as to be able to deliver the goods.

He said the country fared better under the regional arrangement as it fostered healthy competition at minimal costs of running the government.

Utomi described the call for the creation of more states as antithetical to development.

He said states creation would only cater to the needs of the political elite through appointments and would not serve the peoples’ interests.

Utomi said the destiny of the country was in the hands of everyone and urged Nigerians to work for the progress of the nation.

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