Nigerian government is said to be designed not to work owing to apparent clogs in the wheel of governance, though succeeding governments have not made any deliberate effort to remove them 58 years after the country’s political independence.
The British government which colonised Nigeria’ whose name was given by Flora Shaw, a girlfriend to Lord Lugard, the then British colonial master, designed and laid the foundation for the country right from 1800.
Speaking on Wednesday in a privately owned radio station- Inspiration FM 105.9, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, the analysts and callers frowned at what they called ‘wastages’ in the Federal and state governments and the inability of the government to remove them to give fresh breath to good governance in all strata of the society.
Specifically, they called for reduction of fat security votes paid to President and state governors, curbing inflated contracts, stopping government sponsorship of persons on Jerusalem pilgrimage and Hajj as well as Estacode/allowances on overseas’ trips paid to government officials.
Other wastages are withdrawal of subsidy on overseas medical tourism paid to some highly placed government functioneries, stopping payment of severance allowance to political office holders, pensions to out-gone state governors, deputy governors and their spouses.
Though some callers thanked the Federal Government over the endorsement of N30,000 new minimum wage by President Muhammadu Buhari, they expressed reservation on the readiness of the various state governments to pay the said amount as they are yet to make statements on the issue.
On the indefinite nationwide strike embarked by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the analysts and callers described the problems responsible for the strike as intractable and endemic, lamenting that strikes in previous times added more woes to students’ years of graduation.
They, therefore, called on the Federal Government to hold a meeting with ASUU with a view to resolving the problems of poor funding, non-release of take-off grants and infrastructural deficit in the tertiary institutions, among others in the interest of the future generation.
Commenting on the face-off between the Shi’ites and the security agents in the country, they traced the genesis of insecurity infraction in Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Mauritania and Southern Sudan, among others to using repressive force against them by the power-that-be, and called for a round-table discussion to resolve the crisis in the interest of the peaceful co-existence of the country.
