Former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, yesterday said the country was faced with the most troubling economic recession ever.
Gowon, who was represented by his brother, Dr. Dauda Gowon made this known at the Annual Lecture/Gold Service Award 2016 organised by the Centre for Democratic Governance in Africa (CDGA), with the theme; “Global Recession as it Affects Good Governance: Need for Proactive Action-Nigeria as a Case Study, The Way Forward.”
This is just as President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to remove from the 2017 Budget any project or figures sneaked into it as was done in the 2016 Budget.
Gowon said the present economic situation demanded collective effort as the federal government alone would be unable to solve the problems.
Regardless, on the recession, Gowon said, “As we speak, we have on our hands in one of the deepest and most troubling economic recessions ever to plaque Nigeria.”
He noted that the challenge was multifarious, in part, by the fact that the flow of oil money into the Nigerian economy had triggered an avalanche of imported consumer goods that have virtually knocked down domestic production.
Gowon stressed that this in turn had caused unemployment and also led to escalation in crime and other social conflicts.
“Government has shown a deep understanding of these problems and exhibited a strong resolve to contribute to tackling them.
“I believe the troubles we have gone through over the past few years have helped Nigerians to note clearly the difference between self-sustaining economy and one that relies on wasting assets such as oil. We have also seen the extent to which corruption has made governance virtually impossible,” the former head of state stated.
He emphasised that corruption had rendered public institutions, including regulatory and judicial agencies sterile, and that it had also caused deterioration in the quality of infrastructure, health care delivery and education, among others.
In his contribution, constitutional lawyer, Mike Ozekhome said in a situation where the followership or the civil society was weak, the tendency was for the government to see itself as a supernatural being that could trample on the rights of the people.
He said that “the civil societies need to be up and doing; we cannot live government alone, the people must hold this government accountable. We cannot allow the government to use its anti-graft agencies as it has always done to go after perceived enemies and antagonists. It is for the people to rise up and enforce their fundamental human rights by saying no to injustice, by saying no to oppression, by saying no to marginalisation, and once we begin to do that then the government will begin to be careful.
“So we need the people to serve as a guard against the praetorian guard; we need the guard to guard the guard otherwise power that corrupts will corrupt absolutely,” he said.
Earlier, the DG of the Centre, Dr. Dafe Akpocha said, “We are not trying to change, we are trying to contribute, when we have leadership problem and it affects the economy, it affects everything about good governance, we have to get the leadership structure right, if we get the leadership structure right, then other things will follow.”
