Restructuring: ‘Can You Fix Nigeria’ Series – Episode 2

‘Can You Fix Nigeria’ Series – Episode 2

In October 2020, after observing the drift that Nigeria was experiencing, the slow response to the COVID crisis and the general hopelessness of the citizenry, Culbeat Foundation initiated a series of non-partisan policy talks to re-evaluate the problems facing Nigeria.

There are strict rules in place to avoid partisanship, to avoid online abuse and to open our minds to discussing the problem with Nigeria. The series is tagged the Can You Fix Nigeria Challenge.

It is our pleasure to serialise these discussions with you via News Round The Clock.

Episode 2 – Restructuring

In this episode, we discuss the vexing issue of restructuring Nigeria and the shape that such restructuring should take.

The guest on ‘Can You Fix Nigeria – Episode 2’ is Elliot Umole and we discuss examples of other federations who are multi-ethnic and are set up as federal states.

The objective is to learn from their successes and failures. We look at federal states such as Lebanon, Cyprus and Switzerland. The question, however is ‘How should we go about it?’ Should the restructuring be Regional, States or Local Government Authorities?

We also discuss the reason why Nigeria changed from a decentralised system in the First Republic to the centralised system that we have today.

What are our federating units and how will each of these units raise revenue, especially as some of the current states seem to be nonviable.

Finally, we discuss on whether restructuring is even possible at all. What can we learn from Yugoslavia and the old USSR – centralised states that broke up into smaller decentralised ones.?

This episode’s guest

Mr. Elliot Umole holds a B.Sc. in Engineering from the University of Benin, a M.Sc. from the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen and an MBA from Sloan Business School, MIT in the U.S.

With close to 25 years post-graduate experience across Banking, Breweries and the Oil & Gas sectors, he is a contemporary analyst across a wide spectrum of topics.

About Culbeat Foundation

Culbeat Foundation for Social Development was founded in 2008 and is a registered charitable organisation. We focus on the areas of Education, Youth Development, Healthcare Support and Policy Advancement.

Our motto “…re-defining Nigerian values.”

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