NIGERIA @ 61: TWENTY ONE MATTERS ARISING BY DR.GBENGA ADEOYE. - THE BUSINESS PACKAGE

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Friday, October 1, 2021

NIGERIA @ 61: TWENTY ONE MATTERS ARISING BY DR.GBENGA ADEOYE.



Today Nigeria is 61 not by existence of human beings or the geographical location but  by the name Nigeria and the amalgamation by colonial masters.

There are 21 matters arising that we all must attend to as quick as possible if we want this country to continue as a united one in prosperity.These matters in my view are :

1. Review of our Constitution or redrafting of a new one.Very Urgent.

2.Elimination of Sharia Laws in the North because that is religious and Nigeria as a secular state must not use one law  in certain parts of the country and another law based on religion in another part.We can put customary laws in our main laws such that every culture is taken care of but having a completely different laws in separate booklets is questionable or at best we can make state laws that are peculiar to each state on certain matters.

3.Elimination of corruption and corrupt practices.We must put law in place to regularly check wealth and work correlation.A situation where people suddenly become wealthy on account of Political Position either by election or appointment MUST BE STOPPED.

4.Electoral System must be reviewed such that no idiots emerge as leader at any level .When fools governs, the intelligent ones must act in obedience to foolish laws and policies and in that situation, there will be pain and agony.High cost of election must also be checked .Vote buying should be stopped too.Voting should be simplified with technology and result shown on real time basis fo avoid manipulation.

5.We must review our Education System and declare a state of Emergency.Primary and Secondary Education must become a MUST.Most of the crisis in Nigeria has roots in Education deficiency...Check those involved in crime largely and most especially the insecurity in the north.

6.We must review our Healthcare system and declare a state of emergency therein.Many Doctors left Nigeria because of the system.

7.We must declare a state of Emergency on Power Generation.Electricity must be available to all.This will create jobs for our youths.Small and Medium Scale enterprises  will be able to perform .

8.We must review our agricultural policies and let all Agric matters  return to states.We must allow each state to face their comparative advantage in crop production and animal husbandry..Yam for some, pepper for some, livestock for some while cash crop is doe some others.We must pay attention to medical crops like bitter cola and other.

9.We must review our mining policies.Most of the resources are wasting underground.We must start producing cars not just importing parts and assembling them here.Ajaokuta must no remain a mere estate but source of materials for cars and other engineering pursuit.

10.We must involve Traditional Rulers in Governance and ensure that government's impact is felt at the grassroot.

11.We must review the benefits of political position and bring it down to civil service level .Cars, houses, heavy remuneration and stealing makes those positions attractive and most of the people longing to go there are not going to serve but investing to reap profit.This must stop.

12.We must review our diversity and ensure that Unity is encouraged.To achieve that, resource control and equitable representations in National Positions MUST be  allowed in accordance with Section 14 of the current constitution.

13.We must allow citizens to have freedom of speech and pay attention to fundamental human rights of people generally.Ban on twitter  and Facebook as well as TV and radio stations must be very rare and  must be done only in case of  generally acceptable infractions and reasons that all Nigerians can see clearly and not just because of opposing views.

14.We must set up review mechanism to check the performance of every leader quarterly .A situation where people make promises every 4 years and fail but yet win election for another 4 years is not ideal.

15.Restructuring must be given immediate attention.Our Tax laws must be overhauled .All agitations from states on VAT and other taxes  must be attended to . Multiple taxation in states must be stopped.How can you be paying VAT and at the  same time be paying Consumption Tax.We must jointly sit down to  clean up all the mess in our tax laws, structure and systems.

16.We must review our International Policies.Insurance Companies are now being taken over by foreigners.Quarry business already taken over by foreigners.Banking is moving in that direction.The entire Construction arena is almost gone.Our people are treated like criminals all over the world because the home is sick.We need to attend to these matters wholeheartedly 

17.We must review high cost of Governance..Having Embassies all over the world may not be necessary. We can have them on Regional basis.

18.We must critically review our borrowings and ensure we tie every kobo to specific projects that can pay back easily and on time directly and indirectly .

19.We must pay attention to data base of Nigerians. We must review Immigration Policies and ensure we have details of every human beings in our country.Today people cannot get International Passport renewed because there is no booklet.By now the Minister of Interior and whoever is the head of immigration and all parties responsible should have been fired, if we are serious minded people.It is not too late to start doing the right thing so that Nigerians can at least get the kind of service available in other countries here at home.

20.We must bring new set of people into National Orientation agency to change our mindset and the way we do things.. VIO told to leave the highways and our roads by the court. YET no one is obeying that case law.

Road Safety mostly are on the road not to safeguard lives but to milk people.Police not empowered to do their best.Hence collecting N500 or N1000 on the road among other evils is more like NORMAL...Civil Defence men also have converted their uniforms to avenue to make money.Security  agencies can apprehend people without following their own laid down rules...

Custom decided not  to obey 40 km to border rule and nobody can call them to order.Killings of innocent civilians while pursuing smugglers is now a common trend.

All of these are signs of decay in the society and we must sit down to reset our minds and let us be human in all we do .Recently we heard of invasion into hotels by some security people forced doors of  innocent people opened  while they were sleeping without any crime only to say sorry after infringing on their privacy.That also is a national problem and sign of decay.

You find people that ought to help companies and citizens in their business and daily activities deliberately causing problem and making lives difficult simply to get something from them.


Criminals when arrested get released in few days and that alone makes people to lose confidence in government.Sometimes when you see the kind of tables and cars at police stations, you just know these guys here will not perform. 

Do we  have health insurance for these officers such that a Police man should be able to live like another man working at NNPC?

21.Lastly, our security need to be given immediate attention and as a matter of fact a state of emergency should be declared.We must not pretend  that all is well.

Kidnapping , bank robbery, killings and all sorts are clear signs of a state moving towards failing .We must not allow religion and ethnicity to blindfold us in dealing with criminals as they are .All stakeholders must rise up and government must show seriousness.

Nigeria must be a place where crime is not allowed to go unchecked.

Happy 61st Independence  anniversary to Nigeria, my Country.

Dr .Gbenga Adeoye.
1st October,  2021

The author, Dr.Gbenga Adeoye  holds a Bachelor's Degree in Law.( LLB)

He holds an MSc. in Banking & Finance.
He holds a PhD in Management Accounting.

He also holds a Diploma in Criminology and Security studies.

He is a Fellow of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria ( FCA) , a Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria ( FCTI) &  an Arbitrator of UK and Nigeria.

He is an advocate of Peaceful Co Existence,  Tax Justice, Good Governance and Socio Economic Development of Africa in general and Nigeria in particular.

He believes that without Peace, there will be no progress no matter how small the entity is.He is of the opinion that National, State, Community and Family Transformation and Development is hinged on the  Quality of people in charge of our  affairs.

1 comment:

  1. Good one and more wisdom sir, very valid points here...thanks for this

    ReplyDelete