By Victor Young

Nigerian Employers’ Consultative Association, NECA, has warned that the country’s attempt at addressing insecurity, poverty, unemployment and other challenges would remain a mirage unless the country was restructured.

restructuring

Speaking through its outgoing Director General, Mr. Olusegun Oshinowo, NECA argued that restructuring of Nigeria would allow states take full responsibility for their resources and manage same to create wealth for their citizens.

At a valedictory briefing, he lamented that the dependence of the federating states on the monthly federal allocations made nonsense of the idea of a federal structure that Nigeria had set out to operate.

According to him, “Nigeria must restructure to allow states take responsibility for certain aspects of this economy. Even if you have zero-level corruption, best of economic policies, if we don’t restructure, which will create wealth for the people, those policies won’t work.

“Today, it is only in Lagos and Abuja things seem to be happening. There are no economic opportunities for the citizens in other states. So what you find is a situation where Nigerians are moving out of those states to Lagos to find means of survival. This is not good for the economy.

“The federating states must be able to provide opportunities to engage their citizens and fight poverty. This is why restructuring is necessary.”

Oshinowo, who is retiring this December after 19 years of service in NECA, also decried what he called “over-regulation of the Nigerian economy by multiple agencies of Federal Government,” describing them as ‘killers’ of businesses.

Timothy Olawale, NECA’s DG-designate, who takes over in January 2019, said he would build on the successes recorded by his predecessor.