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Fri, Mar

APC, Predecessors Have Not Addressed Nigeria’s Fundamental Issues – Ezekwesili

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Nigeria’s former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili does not believe that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the previous administration have addressed Nigeria’s challenging issues.

Ezekwesili was one of the guests on Channels Television Democracy Day Programme, Channels Forum, aimed at discussing and proffering solutions to the many challenges facing the nation. She noted that both administrations have not addressed Nigeria’s fundamental issues.

“APC and its predecessor have not in anyway addressed the fundamental structural issue that we have as Nigeria. And I will say that the top is our obsession for the lottery that comes out of being an oil-rich economy,” she said.

Ezekwesili, who is also the convener of red card movement, blamed Nigeria’s huge dependence on crude oil.

According to her, this has distorted Nigeria’s economy even as the political class comfortably rely on this ‘free lunch’.

“What that has caused is that it has distorted our incentives. Incentives also distorted that productivity and competitiveness which are heralded on the back of well advanced and well-developed world-class human capital development which has not been our foretell.

“Our political class comfortable to have this free lunch that comes in the wake of commodity supercycle,” she said.

Ezekwesili, who once served as the Vice-President of the World Bank’s Africa also expressed the belief that the business of nation-building is not for everybody.

“So recently, oil prices are back on a trend up what do you hear amongst our political class, thank God! Anybody can distribute oil wealth. But not everybody can do the business of nation-building.”

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