Chukwuma Soludo, the governor of Anambra State, supported the increasing movement on Wednesday to limit elected officials to a single term, claiming that the country’s true federalism is incompatible with any kind of local government autonomy. In light of declining expenses, the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) suggested a National Assembly with a single chamber.
Speaker Soludo, who served as Speaker from 2015 to 2019, delivered remarks at Covenant Nation, a Lagos-based church,’s The Platform Nigeria event in honor of 2024 Democracy Day. Among those in attendance at the event with the topic “Democracy and the free Market Economy” are former Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara, former Minister of Works Babatunde Fashola, and Bishop Matthew Hassan-Kukah of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto.
“These conversations about single terms, whether you say four years or five years, six years, seven years, single term, sometimes start to make some sense so that you fix it,” Soludo stated. “So, after you’re done with this, you’re not thinking about the next election?” In my state, I deal with that every day. “No, wait, you know you have an election,” they say when you want to get involved in this endeavor. And I reply, “No, let’s go for it; if we win, we win, and if we lose, we lose.”
“It’s funny how, lately, some people—including some members of the APC—are advocating for local government autonomy. This would take Nigeria decades away from what a true federation entails,” he remarked. “No federal system in existence today has three federal units. The American counties whose democratic systems we imitated, or their local administrations, do not go directly to the federal government to obtain funding.
“Each state should have the authority to create the local government structure that best suits its needs. That is the essence of true federalism. According to Soludo, the Federal Government should delegate part of the duties on the Exclusive List to sub-nationals. “We need to adjust the budgetary capabilities of the federal and state governments, give the states more authority over many of the duties under the Exclusive List, and give the states between 60 and 65 percent of the income, with each state choosing which local system to implement.
“Why not create a single National Assembly with five representatives maximum from each state? We don’t require a National Assembly that will cost more than N300 billion a year to run. He declared, “We don’t need it.
The governor of Anambra acknowledged that President Bola Tinubu was not the root of the nation’s current economic issues. He claimed that since 1999, the nation has been suffering as a result of the bad deeds and inactions of the prior administrations. “Delayed adjustments are now causing us problems,” he stated, underscoring Tinubu’s “historic duty to mobilize Nigerians to clean up the mess for future generation.”
He declared, “Nigeria is facing both technical and fiscal solvency issues.” The amount of debt has accumulated to the point where more borrowing, albeit at exorbitant costs, is scarce. However, the needs of the populace are growing daily in a geometric manner. The governor issued a warning that increasing money production would cause inflation to skyrocket. He acknowledged, “We need to get out of this jam. We are in a bind.”
