Nigeria must return to First Republic structure to progress – ARG

The Afenifere Renewal Group, ARG, has called for a return to the First Republic’s regional political structure or the constitution of Nigeria’s six geo-political zones into federating units. In the First Republic, Nigeria practised a true federalist system with three regions, Western, Eastern, and Northern, as federating units and each being quite semi-autonomous.

The ARG, a Yoruba Socio-cultural pressure group, argued that Nigeria can no longer afford the cost of running the present political structure. The group made this call in its ‘Nigerian Democratic Governance Report,’ subtitled: ‘Curbing Political Instability and Extravagance.’

It argued that the country is over-governed with 36 states and 774 local governments and 1 Federal Capital Territory and said with the prevailing dire economic situation the country can no longer afford to maintain the alarming cost of government bureaucracy. The group said the reason for the infrastructure decay in the country is that a huge part of government revenue in all tiers of government is used to service the bureaucracy of government that merely covers 3 per cent of the entire population.