The Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr Moses Ekpo, says Nigeria has not made significant progress since it gained independence in 1960 due to the nation’s inability to adhere to the tenets of her constitution.
Ekpo who had his first major outing as a journalist on October 1, 1960, in an interview with newsmen in Uyo on Monday regretted that Nigeria has been moving three steps forward and four steps backward.
The Deputy Governor who attributed such dance within a vicious circle to lack of purposeful leadership, says Nigeria has been unfortunate to have leaders who lack the capacity to differentiate party politics from governance.
He said Nigerian leaders have continued to allow ethnic and political sentiment to becloud their sense of responsibility, to the point where violence and killings are telerated by the federal government, due to low sense of commitment to the safety and security of Nigerians.
Ekpo who pointed out that the constitution of Nigeria provided for federating units to harness and use their resources to develop themselves, said the decision by the nation’s leaders to ignore such a significant part of the constitution has left every part of the country with nothing significant to show as an achievement, as healthy competition has not been encouraged.
Citing the Niger Delta region for instance, Ekpo lamented that despite the huge amount of crude resources extracted from the area, and the proceeds shared across the nation, no significant development has occurred within the region, despite the ravaging effect of oil and gas exploration.
I must say that 59 years after the creation of Nigeria, we are economically moving three steps forward and four steps backward. We lack good leaders and good constitution that would aid the development of this country. We need a constitution that must be obeyed.
Politically, we have not made progress because most of our politicians are still not able to differentiate between politics and governance.
We have allowed politics to overshadow everything, including the security of the country, that is why we keep hearing of killings in some parts of the country. Government must pay attention to its core-duties of providing security for the people.
He said for Nigeria to make progress going forward, leaders who have the opportunity to govern the nation must be willing to revisit the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria and take into consideration the interests of the federating units.
Stressing on how this would aid development, Ekpo noted that since the nation’s approach to governance retains significant aspects of development on the exclusive list of the federal government, it has become increasingly difficult for states to develop themselves without being stampeded by the federal government.
He recalled that Akwa Ibom faced certain difficulties before getting an approval to operate its airlines and is currently facing difficulties in processing issues surrounding the Deep Seaport project. These he said would not have been the case if true federalism was practiced in Nigeria
Without giving powers to the federating units, no meaningful development and progress can take place. This is not the constitution that our people approved in 1960, what we see today is an attempt to run the country on a make-shift approach.
We need to begin again, we need to take a look at our constitution and agree on what we want. What we have today does not really promote equity.
“Each state was allowed to compete, using what they have, but today, everybody is relying on oil, and where the oil is coming from has nothing to show for it. Nothing about oil is located here, no office, no welfare unit, everything surrounding oil is located in Lagos”, he said.
He however listed progress, development, good and patriotic leadership as his wishes for Nigeria as it marks her 59th year as an independent nation.
