A former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar has
called on the Federal Government to scrap the
current 36 state structure.
Atiku also said the adoption of the six geo-
political zones as federating units, will do
Nigeria a lot of good.
He said this while accepting the Hero of
Nigeria Democracy Award conferred on him
by Hall of Grace Magazine.
According to Vanguard, the former Vice-
President also said some of the states are
not financially viable.
Atiku said “We must be open to changing the
nature of the federating units, such as using
the existing geo-political zones as federating
units rather than the current 36 states, of
which only a few are financially viable.
“We need to diversify our economy away from
the dependence on oil. We need to create
opportunities for our people to engage in
diverse economic activities which
governments will then tax for revenues.
“But we can’t do that efficiently and
effectively without accurate data. I have in
the past called for an end to the self-
defeating politics we play with census in the
country.
“With all the data gathering and analytic
tools in existence in the 21st century, we
have no good reason not to have accurate
data on our people, down to the smallest
unit, the individual.
“Without data, we cannot plan properly and all of us will lose, including those who try to
inflate their population figures and those who want to suppress those of others.
“Political decentralization will also help to
deepen and strengthen our
democracy as it
will encourage more
accountability. Citizens
are more likely to demand accountability
when governments spend their tax money
rather than rent collected from an impersonal
source.”
Atiku Abubakar also told newsmen that his
focus is on how to improve lives and not the
2019 general elections.
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