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Anyaoku Advocates Nigeria’s Restructuring
Former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, has called for the restructuring of the present federal structure to the 1963 regional system of government.
He made the call yesterday at the opening of the 2012 Annual Faculty of Arts Conference, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.
Anyaoku, who was the chairman of the occasion, argued that federalism along the old regions would save cost of governance and improve efficiency in administration.
On the challenges of good governance in Nigeria, Anyaoku said that established institutions and good leadership were the basic prerequisite for good governance.
He emphasised transparency as the key to good leadership, blaming corruption as an impediment to good governance.
“Apart from fuelling the mismanagement of our national resources, corruption detracts from our character as a people as well as impugns the integrity of our leadership at all levels of governance.
“Corruption has so seriously eaten deep into the fabric of our society that it has virtually swallowed up our collective values,” he said.
He said that the attack on corruption should begin from the education sector “by remodeling our schools’ curricular and encouraging our teachers to teach civic and virtues of service.”
The former Commonwealth scribe also called for improvement of the current state of civil service at all the three tiers of government by rebuilding and motivating workers.
He urged the five South-East states to develop more seriously a regional economic cooperation, arguing that if its human resources were developed, the region would create one of the fastest growing economies in the country and West Africa.
In a lecture entitled: “Nigeria: Towards the creation of Incentives and Structures for Good Governance,’’ former CBN Governor, Prof. Charles Soludo, argued that the discovery of oil had done more harm than good to the country.
According to him, the discovery of oil has created a pervasive incentive system of corruption and has rather deteriorated the society.
He also called for the re-strcuturing of the federal structure to a regional one to encourage competition and less dependence on the government at the centre for allocation.
“There is need for a competitive federalism where the six geo-political zones become federating units and the present states become provinces to reduce cost of governance and frequent calls for state creation.
“We must also redefine what we do with our oil money. It should be used for building capacities for the future.
“You don’t measure good governance with the number of roads or projects you have done, but with the type of change at the level of unemployment, provision of pipe borne water, efficient railways, among others,” he said.
In a brief remark, the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Boniface Egboka, noted that the institution was fast becoming classic because of the regular exposure of both the academic and non-academic staff as well as students by eminent scholars.
Egboka added that the conference was a tribute to the first Nigerian president, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, for his contributions to the development of the country and good governance.
The Nigeria Immigration Service has officially ended passport production at multiple centres, transitioning to a single, centralised system for the first time in 62 years.
Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this yesterday while inspecting Nigeria’s new Centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at the NIS Headquarters in Abuja.
He stated that since the establishment of NIS in 1963, Nigeria had never operated a central passport production centre, until now, marking a major reform milestone.
“The project is 100 per cent ready. Nigeria can now be more productive and efficient in delivering passport services,” Tunji-Ojo said.
He explained that old machines could only produce 250 to 300 passports daily, but the new system had a capacity of 4,500 to 5,000 passports every day.
“With this, NIS can now meet daily demands within just four to five hours of operation,” he added, describing it as a game-changer for passport processing in Nigeria.
“We promised two-week delivery, and we’re now pushing for one week.
“Automation and optimisation are crucial for keeping this promise to Nigerians,” the minister said.
He noted that centralisation, in line with global standards, would improve uniformity and enhance the overall integrity of Nigerian travel documents worldwide.
Tunji-Ojo described the development as a step toward bringing services closer to Nigerians while driving a culture of efficiency and total passport system reform.
He said the centralised production system aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s reform agenda, boosting NIS capacity and changing the narrative for better service delivery.
The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has disbursed N2.225 trillion as federation revenue for the month of August 2025, the highest ever allocation to the three tiers of government and other statutory recipients.
This marks the second consecutive month that FAAC disbursements have crossed the N2 trillion mark.
The revenue, shared at the August 2025 FAAC meeting in Abuja, was buoyed by increases in oil and gas royalty, value-added tax (VAT), and common external tariff (CET) levies, according to a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting.
Out of the N2.225 trillion total distributable revenue, FAAC said N1,478.593 trillion came from statutory revenue, N672.903 billion from VAT, N32.338 billion from the Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL), and N41.284 billion from Exchange Difference.
The communiqué revealed that gross federation revenue for the month stood at N3.635 trillion. From this amount, N124.839 billion was deducted as cost of collection, while N1,285.845 trillion was set aside for transfers, interventions, refunds, and savings.
From the statutory revenue of N1.478 trillion, the Federal Government received N684.462 billion, State Governments received N347.168 billion, and Local Government Councils received N267.652 billion. A further N179.311 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) went to oil-producing states as derivation revenue.
From the distributable VAT revenue of N672.903 billion, the Federal Government received N100.935 billion, the states received N336.452 billion, while the local governments got N235.516 billion.
Of the N32.338 billion shared from EMTL, the Federal Government received N4.851 billion, the States received N16.169 billion, and the Local Governments received N11.318 billion.
From the N41.284 billion exchange difference, the Federal Government received N19.799 billion, the states received N10.042 billion, and the local governments received N7.742 billion, while N3.701 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) was shared to the oil-producing states as derivation.
The Governing Council of Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori, has decried the inadequate power supply and poor state of infrastructural facilities and equipment at the institution.
The Council also appealed to the government, including Non-Governmental Organisations, agencies, as well as well-meaning Rivers people to intervene to restore and sustain the laudable gesture, dreams and aspirations of the founding fathers of the polytechnic.
The Chairman of the newly inaugurated Council, Professor Friday B. Sigalo, made this appeal during a tour of facilities at the Polytechnic, recently.
Accompanied by members of the team, Prof Sigalo emphasised the position of technology, technical and vocational education in sustainable development.
He noted that with the prospects on ground, and the programmes and activities undertaken in the polytechnic, there is no doubt that the institution would add values to the educational system in our society and foster the desired development, if the existing challenges are jointly tackled.
This was contained in a statement signed by Deputy Registrar, Public Relations, Kenpoly, Innocent Ogbonda-Nwanwu, and made available to The Tide in Port Harcourt.
The chairman who restated the intention of his team of technocrats to ensure that KenPoly enjoys desirable face-lift, said the Council would deliver on its core mandates, accordingly.
Earlier, the Rector, KenPoly Engr. Dr. Ledum S. Gwarah, commended the appointment of Professor Friday B. Sigalo as Chairman of the KenPoly Governing Council.
He described him and his team as seasoned technocrats and expressed confidence in their ability to succeed.
The Rector pledged the management’s support to the Council to ensure that KenPoly resumes its rightful place in the comity of polytechnics in the country.
Facilities visited by the Governing Council include KenPoly workshops, laboratories, skills acquisition centre, library, hostels and medical centre.
Chinedu Wosu
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