Anyaoku Backs Devaluation, Laments against Over 3,000 Advisers in Government

Emeka Anyaoku

FORMER Secretary-General of Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Onyaoku has given his support to the position of President Mohammadu Buhari against the devaluation of the nation’s currency stating that it was in the best interest of the country.

 

Anyaoku who stated this on Tuesday during the presentation of Ambassador Olusola Sanu’s memoirs Audacity on the Bound: A Diplomatic odyssey at the Kakanfo Inn and Conference Centre, Ibadan also unequivocally urged the President to maintain his position on the devaluation of the currency. However, he urged the President to seek extensive assistance towards resuscitating the economy from its present crisis.

Speaking further on the state of the nation, the former Commonwealth scribe emphatically carpeted the leaders in the country over wasteful and unproductive spending stating that Nigeria’s politicians take advantages of the presidential system of government which the country adopts to exploit the masses through waste of funds on non-productive sectors at the detriment of the society.

“A case has not been convincingly made that the devaluation of our Naira in our present circumstance will truly serve Nigeria’s national interest. President Mohammadu Buhari should, in my view, stick to his anti-devaluation position but he should also urgently appoint a team of knowledgeable economists to advise him on how to approach Nigeria’s current economic crisis.

“The new generation of politicians has exploited the presidential system to operate a system that is a drain on the treasury. It is hard to believe that we now operate a system where we now have more than 3,000 advisers at the federal, state and local government levels. 

“States that have no Internally Generated Revenue have more than 30 Advisers, Senior Special Assistants and their Assistants. The shame of Nigeria is imminent that even the chairman of a local government area operates the presidential system as entitlement. They have Chiefs of Staff, Chief Protocol, Press officer and so on.

“The result is that 30 to 40 percent of our annual budget is spent on these officers. By the time you add other spending on transportation and travels, more than half of the budget is spent on non-productive sector of the economy”, he said.

Eulogizing Sanu on the presentation, Anyaoku said that the country’s international relations will be superb if such memoirs of past diplomats are available for consultations by upcoming diplomats both for learning and orientations.

“From the crux of such memoirs, there will be no dearth of information on the country’s diplomatic efforts. There is high level of ignorance in South Africa about Nigeria’s support for the country’s anti-apartheid struggle. The ignorance broadly explains in part the reason for xenophobia in some parts of the Southern African country.

“We can save ourselves from the embarrassment only of our diplomats who took part in the anti-apartheid struggle write their memoirs.

“Ambassador Sanu’s brilliance was not unexpected because he had educational background in two of the world’s best institutions. His intellectual background was certainly one of the reasons for the outstanding success of his diplomatic policies”, Anyaoku concluded.