Lack of strategic planning, bane of Nigeria’s devp – Egwu

A NIGERIAN legal professional, Uche Egwu has decried absence of clear system as one of the major flaws in the country’s democracy and bane of Nigeria’s development.

 This was disclosed during an interview with National Light in Awka, Anambra State on Friday.

  Mr. Egwu noted that a country trapped in chance outcome of event in determining their fate is already doomed as strategic planning is the surest way to success than banking on lottery.

  “There is a system in the Western world while there is no system in Nigeria’s clime. By this, I mean that there is no pattern of doing things in a systematic way. It is just a collection of individuals that form great powers; the godfathers, powerful and wealthy people taking decisions that affect the entire people,” he stated.

  He pointed out that Nigeria needs to evolve a functional strategic plan that will help her grow and be comparable with climes that have a system; insisting that what obtains in Nigeria is chaos in motion  and “that is the recognisable system if that is a system.”

 ” We need to grow up, we need to plan our society to join the rest of humanity in the stride for further development. We need to replan not just specific area but holistically. The educational system,  health and social systems require good strategic approach. From the roads, hospitals down to tourism should be replanned. We need to go back to the drawing board and plan well,” the legal professional insisted.

  He made reference to countries in the Third World that had transited into developed country. Citing Lee Kuan Yew’s ”From Third World To First World”. In his words, “See how the man systematically planned the country and Singapore  transited from being a Third World country to become a First World country as at 1984 after gaining her independence in 1965.. Granted it is a small country, but there are advantages to scale. Nigeria is a huge country with huge resources untapped; we can use those resources to plan and then develop,” he surmised.

  Egwu emphasised that Anambra State has been a leading state in terms of good governance, having had governors that performed creditably over the past years. “We have had governors that had done well; each successor building on the achievements of his predecessor. I believe, the present governor in the person of Professor Chukwuma Soludo has much to offer and he came with policies. If all the policies are implemented, it will be an improvement on the previous government. He has high aim,” he stated.

 Adding, “remember Soludo in his earlier attempt to become the governor of Anambra State, floated the mantra of making Anambra the Dubai of Africa. Such is the high aim we are talking about and it is not a bad idea to aim high. Even if you fall short of reaching the goal, you have developed to a certain point. Governor Soludo has come with home grown economic policy and should be given massive support to advance the state in that direction.