Nigeria Can’t Progress Without Strong Institutions – Moghalu

A former presidential candidate, Kingsley Moghalu,  says Nigeria is finding it difficult to develop due to lack of independent and strong economic institutions.

He said the country is bankrupt because its leadership and politics are a “grand fraud”.

The former deputy governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) made the assertion in a series of tweets on his official twitter page.

He noted that Nigeria’s problem was not lack of brilliant minds, but a lack of strong and effective institutions.

He wrote: “90 million Nigerians live in extreme poverty and the country is essentially bankrupt not because we don’t have brilliant economists, but because our politics and leadership are a grand fraud. Prosperity requires nationhood, first, followed by strong, effective institutions.

“Without strong political institutions, we can’t have strong economic institutions that can set up an equal opportunity for wealth creation. If we don’t restructure a big, diverse country constitutionally back to real federalism, Nigeria can neither be stable nor prosper.”

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently said at least 82.9 million Nigerians are living in poverty, although earlier data from the World Poverty Clock puts the estimate at above 90 million.

This means that about 40.1 percent of Nigeria’s population — excluding Borno state which has been ravaged by Boko Haram insurgents since over a decade — is surviving on less than a dollar daily.