Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Dr Olisa Agbakoba, has said that President Bola Tinubu cannot achieve any meaningful economic reform with the current political governance structure in the country.
Agbakoba stated this on Friday while fielding questions on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme.
The senior lawyer suggested that Tinubu should take some of the powers vested in the exclusive legislative list and transfer them to the state government.
He said: “Right now, the streets are not showing it. It’s a different thing. When the National Bureau of Statistics announces a GDP growth rate of 3.3 per cent, is it happening on the ground where garri, rice, beans, palm oil are crippling people?
“So the President’s responsibility, which he demonstrated yesterday, is to take on the final two years with vigour.
“He cannot achieve any economic, meaningful economic reform in the context of the current political governance structure.
“Some say restructure, some call it decentralisation, others call it rebalancing. Some call it devolution, whatever name it is, the President, please take some of the powers that have been vested in the exclusive legislative list and transfer them to the state government.
“And the state government itself needs to transfer serious power, real political power, to the 774 local governments so we can have a broad-based three-tier government all focused on the delivery of services.
“All Nigerians want are services: education, health, jobs, security of tenure, good pension, that’s all they want. And the only way that can be achieved is to rejig Nigeria.”
