The former Central Bank Governor Prof. Charles Soludo at a recent lecture in University of Nigeria Nsukka, said “the presidential system of government is too expensive and cannot be sustained”. He went further to reveal that since we discovered oil in commercial quantity, we have realized about four hundred billion dollars in oil revenue that cannot reasonably be accounted for, considering the dwarfish development we have had since then.He must know better, he was in the kitchen.

 

African analyst plus other notable public commentators have come to this same conclusion. We have dealt extensively on this same matter here, when we advised Secretary Clinton on her visit to Nigeria to tell the country’s leaders the home truth; that the country needs to restructure to survive. On that we made it clear, the present 36 states structure is too cumbersome with the attendant duplication of government office functions. It is better we dissolved them into six manageable regions which to us is a more responsible alternative. This will not only reduce waste, but will encourage competition and sustainable even development.

The present system as it is is an extravagant adventure that has for long enriched and benefited only a few leaving the rest in abject poverty. This piece of advice coming from a person of Soludo’s caliber is too weighty to be ignored; time is running out, a change must be made now.