Emeka Anyaoku Urges Electorate To Vote For Leaders Who Will ‘Keep Their Promises’

A former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, has said Nigerians must vote for politicians, who will prioritise the revamping of the nation’s governance system in order to reposition the country.

The former diplomat stated that the 2023 general elections would be a watershed in the history of Nigeria but stressed that the electorate must vote only leaders who have the capacity to reposition the country.

According to a statement on Friday by Governor Seyi Makinde’s Chief Press Secretary, Taiwo Adisa, the ex-diplomat said this at the 11th Chief Emeka Anyaoku Awards/Lecture Series on Good Governance.

The awards which was held in Ibadan was organised by the Youth Affairs International Foundation and was attended by Governor Seyi Makinde; former Edo State Governor, Odigie Oyegun among others.

Anyaoku, asked Nigerians to only consider and vote for leaders they could trust, to revamp the country’s political structure and security management,” among other issues.

Anyaoku said that the present system would not lead the country to the desired height expected by its citizens while calling for the decentralisation of the management of security to much more manageable size.

“I will urge my compatriots to study the manifesto that the contestants will produce carefully and vote for those they believe will carry out their promises,” Anyaoku said

The Oyo State governor said in his speech that Oyo State had experienced both good and governance

“In our administration, we decided to be transparent with the finances of the state. For each budget cycle, we hold town hall meetings across all the geopolitical zones in the state to ask our people what they want to see.

“We also let them know that government resources are limited. So, transparency is what we have achieved in Oyo State. Good governance also needs accountability. We created various feedback channels for our people including media chats, because we want the people to hold us accountable and tell them precisely how things are and we were able to bring out the facts and allow people to determine whether or not they are enjoying good governance in Oyo State.”

The governor insisted that for there to be good governance, there are critical issues that should be looked into, including state police, devolution of powers and local government autonomy.

He noted that for states to be able to perform optimally, unlike what obtains in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, they should be free to create as many local governments as possible for administrative convenience, stating that until some of these issues are addressed, there will continue to be challenges to good governance.

“That brings me to the issue of constitutional review; take local government autonomy. I have seen flyers alleging that in Oyo State, the local governments got a certain amount of money from the federal allocations that accrued to them; that each local government, for instance, got N260 million, from the federal allocation, for April.

“But how much was this local government supposed to pay for the salaries of primary school teachers, which is the primary responsibility of the local government?

“How much was this local government supposed to pay for the primary health care system and how much of that money is the local government supposed to pay for waste management within the local government? Those are primary responsibilities of the local government system.

“Anyway, you are talking about this money coming from the federation account. What happened to the autonomy if federation account money dries off, which is also a possibility? “Why are you not talking about autonomy relative to what the local government can generate and what the local government can contribute to the common purse? So, those are some of the challenges we see in the federation.

“We are given a constitution with the number of local governments expressly specified in there and you cannot do anything about it. So, the state should be required to create as many local government areas as possible for their own development rather than the regimented local government system they put in our constitution.”

The Director, Oba Sikiru Adetona Institute of Governance Studies, Department of Political Science, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Prof. Ayo Olukotun, while speaking on “Nigeria’s Elusive Search for Good Governance,” noted that rationality must be brought to bear on public sector finances in order to achieve maximum results.

He listed some factors that inhibit good governance to include institutional decay; lack of inclusiveness; lack of respect for rule of law; poverty of ideas and ineffective ethical leadership, adding that Nigerian citizens must work actively to achieve the turning point we need as a nation.