None Of The Presidential Candidates Can Solve Nigeria’s Problem – Ozekhome

Mike Ozekhome, a human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria has declared that none of the three major presidential candidates in the forthcoming general elections can fix Nigeria’s problems.

According to Ozekhome, the only way to address the nation’s pressing issues of insecurity, faltering economy, poverty, and pessimism is through restructuring.

According to the senior advocate, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party,z Peter Obi of the Labour Party, and all other presidential candidates would only try, but they would not be able to save Nigeria from the enormous challenges facing it.

The renowned lawyer maintained that Nigeria problem was systemic, as only structural adjustment could bring a change.

The senior attorney stated this when he spoke at the 2022 Independence Day Anniversary Lecture on the following topic: “Nigeria in search for an enduring political structure; imperative of structural reforms”, organised by the Ogun State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress held in Abeokuta, the State capital.

“Nigeria in search for an enduring political structure; imperative of structural reforms”, organised by the Ogun State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress held in Abeokuta, the State capital.

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He said, “Virtually everything that can possibly go wrong, is wrong with our country: insecurity, collapsed infrastructure, failure of the public school system, an economy in shambles (epitomized by the free-fall of the value of the Naira and spiraling inflation), an unremitting insurgency, etc. The list is endless

“Reforms at the meta-level would entail either embracing our discarded Prime Minister system of government or dismantling and recoupling several of the institutions that help or hinder us, including a serious re-examination of the 36 state structure as federating units vis-à-vis their fiscal/economic viability or their consolidation into six or more regions with economies of scale and higher investment rates; multiple vice-presidencies representing respective regions other than the region of the president, each with supervising powers over certain ministries to ensure equitable representation at the federal cabinet.

“The greatest challenge is how to get some of the elite whose privileges are provided by the existing system to support its dismantling into a system that is potentially beneficial to ‘society’ but perhaps disproportionately harmful to their interests in the short term.

“In other words, we are faced with the same kind of conundrum as some western countries with their welfare system. Having designed and implemented it for generations, it has grown into an unsustainable octopus of inefficiency but reforming it is not easy”.