Nigeria’s Greatest Obstacle To Economic Development Is Bad Governance – Oby Ezekwesili

Former Minister of Education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili has said Nigeria cannot experience any economic development that will help the populace if there continues to be bad governance from the political class.

She disclosed that the monopolistic democracy of the country, which is not about the number of political parties but the dominant political culture of a few people belonging to the ruling class is detrimental to the poor masses.

Ezekwesili said this at a virtual conference she organised called #TheFixPolitics/Dialogue and focussed on a title, ‘1999 Constitution: To change or amend,’ on Monday.

The ex-Vice President of the World Bank’s Africa Region, while analysing the background of the FixPolitics, a non-governmental organisation she co-founded to address the anomaly of the Nigerian democratic nature, said there is a need to raise a new political class in Nigeria.

“In the course of my studies, I realised there are key ideas between democracy and governance. And in our own case (in Nigeria) the absence of good governance is the greatest obstacle to Nigeria’s economic development.

“The economic development of this country among other things is affected by the monopolistic democracy. The monopolistic democracy is not about the number of political parties present, but the dominant political culture at play.

“There is an urgent need to raise a new order of political class. We have to mobilise people with the awareness of raising the matter of new constitution,” Ezekwesili said.

In her address, a former Presidential candidate, Remi Sonaiya called for a new constitution for Nigeria. She clamoured for a platform that would involve the generality of the people in having a people-oriented constitution to replace the current 1999 Constitution of the country.

“There have been submissions, but there is a constant call by the people, and that is a totally new constitution. There has to be a total, radical change to our constitution, not minor adding or subtracting but a total change,” Sonaiya said.