By Linus Aleke, Abuja
Professor of Management and Development Studies, John Imonbhio Abhuere, said that the wrong choices made by the Nigerian political elite have been responsible for the problems of the country, noting that it has contributed immensely to poverty, insecurity, unemployment and disunity.
He also called for practical and positive action in nation-building for national unity and development.
This is as Prof. Onoho Omhen Ebohohimhen, observed that the Nigerian civil war has not ended, as measures put in place by the federal government to preserve the unity of the country have not been dismantled.
Prof. Ebohohimhen, said this while, reviewing a book titled, “Restructuring Debate in Nigeria, (2013-2022), A Review -Issues, Options and Direction … Invitation to Nation- Building: The Challenges of Leadership and Management in Nigeria Since Independence,” authored by John Imonbhio Abhuere.
He argued, “The challenge of the current unwieldy structure of our country suggests that we have not yet ended the civil war since all the subnational assets, materials, and some legal and structural institutions were centralized for a war economy to procure unity. In place of regional commodities marketing boards, we created Nigerian marketing boards for cocoa, groundnut, palm produce, rubber and so on. Instead of the larger stake of the subnational structures in the proceeds of minerals, solid, semisolid and liquid, we took the resources to the centre to endue us with the wherewithal to unite our country. Structurally, we have not restored the status quo ante bellum”.
He said that the subnational structures divested of power, authority and resources have become desuetude.
The academic noted that the great social and economic feats in the development of Nigeria happened under a political structure that emphasized the concrete necessity of the constitutional dispersal of the centres of economic activities to simulate and develop productive actions.
Recommending a bottom up approach to development, Prof. Ebohohimhen said: “Physical projects which bestrode both the public and private sectoral landscapes were endogenously driven from the bottom up. In other words, the restructuring debate that speaks to a policy position for any structure to spur modernisation and growth would mean the federalisation of economic centres and a multiplicity of development methodologies. That would attract consensual understanding and cannot be controversial”.
In a vote of thanks at the launch of the book in Abuja, the author, Prof. John Imonbhio Abhuere, said, the book is a wake-up call on all Nigerians, especially the ruling elites to wake up and build a great nation, the right way, putting aside personal interests.
