Economy: Anyaoku says Nigeria 2017 more hopeful

A former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, has said that 2016 had been disappointing, but that 2017 was “more hopeful.”

Anyaoku said this in his New Year message on Tuesday but blamed poor federal structure for the nation’s economic underperformance in 2016 and urged the 8th National Assembly to extend its constitution amendment efforts towards economic restructuring and efficient deployment of human and material resources.

According to him, “Nigeria has clearly failed to meet the hopes and expectations of its citizens in 2016. This fact has been acknowledged by President Muhammadu Buhari who is promising an improvement in the welfare of the people through the budget for 2017.

“I believe that the optimistic prospect will be considerably increased if the existing national architecture of governance, which remains the greatest drawback to the nation’s political stability and pace of development, is restructured.”

The National Assembly, he added, “must not stop at tinkering with the edges” during constitution amendment.

He pleaded with the legislature to realign the 36 states along productive political and economic lines.