By Rotimi Owomoyela

Ado-Ekiti—A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), has said that the root cause of the problems confronting the nation is the quasi-federalism the country is operating at the moment. He advocated a return to regional government to make the country recover fully from its economic and socio-political woes.

Babalola, founder and Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD), explained that the country’s development has continued to suffer because of too much concentration of powers at the centre, adding that a large, multi-ethnic and religious nation like Nigeria needs a regional government where each region is allowed to develop at its own pace.

Babalola said this in Ado Ekiti, weekend during a programme tagged ‘diplomatic talk’ organized by the Department of International Relations, where Malaysia High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Lim Juay Jin was the guest speaker.

According to him, “If we had maintained the regional government as found in the 60s, we would have developed even better than Malaysia.

Delivering his lecture, Ambassador Jin, who described ABUAD as a new face of Nigerian education, insisted that Nigeria should have made very good exploit in eco and medical tourism, but for pervasive insecurity in the system.

He assured that Malaysia will strengthen its business relations with Nigeria because of the integrity of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government and its hostile disposition to corruption.