How Nigeria can attain its potential –Anyaoku

A former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, says Nigeria is  still struggling to fulfil  its potential  as a  nation owing to lack of true federalism.

Anyaoku spoke at the “National Dialogue on  the Constitutional Future of Nigeria” in honour of  the late renowned constitutional lawyer, Prof. Ben Nwabueze.

The dialogue was organised by The Patriots ,a pan -Nigerian group of eminent national leaders of thought.

The programme had the theme, “Lawful Procedures for Actualising a People’s Constitution for Nigeria.”

Anyaoku, who is the Chairman of the Patriots, said Nigeria  had failed to develop like other pluralistic countries in the world because of its inability to devolve powers to federating units.

According to him, other pluralistic countries are far ahead of Nigeria in terms of development  because they have implemented true federalism.

“First, Nigeria is a pluralistic country that is still struggling to become a nation with assured political stability and progressive socio-economic development.

“The fact from across the world is that some pluralistic countries have succeeded in becoming developed nations ,while other pluralistic countries have failed and disintegrated.

“The lesson from this is that pluralistic countries ,which have succeeded in becoming nations have generally practiced true federalism with considerable power devolved to the federating units.

“This fact was acknowledged by our founding fathers who negotiated painstakingly and agreed on the Independence Constitution of 1960-1963,” Anyaoku said.

He said that the Nigeria’s present constitution  lacked the legitimacy that should flow from a democratically -made constitution.

The diplomat added  that the constitution had proven to be unsuitable for tackling many of the serious challenges confronting our country.

He said: “It is a widely recognized fact that the crucial areas of the country have significantly deteriorated and continue to deteriorate.”

Anyaoku said Nigeria had suffered deterioration in many fronts in  security, healthcare, education, economic well-being of the citizens, infrastructure.

He said that the country had equally suffered  in the area of social cohesion,  social values and the sense of national unity.

He said that Nigeria had the option of getting a truly federal constitution by  adopting the recommendations of the 2014 National Confab organised by President Goodluck Jonathan.

“Or we go for a relatively inexpensive directly elected constituent assembly on non-party basis for producing such widely desired constitution,” he said.

Dignitaries at the events included the Afenifere leader, Pa Ayo Adebanjo; Chief Mike Ozekhome; Chief Bode George; Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu and some other former governors.

The News Agency of Nigeria(NAN)reports that Prof.  Nwabueze  was the pioneer Secretary-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo .

He was also a Senor Advocate of Nigeria and a leading thought leader.

Nwabueze died on Oct. 28, 2023, at age 92.