ANYAOKU CHALLENGES SOUTH EAST ON REGIONAL COOPERATION

Former Secretary of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, has challenged governors of the five South East states to take regional economic cooperation seriously if the zone must achieve good governance. Anyaoku made the call this weekend during the annual Faculty of Arts conference at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.

He said the zone had both human and material resources, which if effectively developed, would create one of the fastest growing economies in the country and West Africa region. Reflecting on the conference theme, 'The Humanities and Good Governance', Anyaoku said the main purpose of good governance is to raise the quality of life of the citizens in an environment of security, freedom and democracy.

On the challenges of good governance in Nigeria, he identified strong institutions and good leadership as basic prerequisites, saying that in addition to transparency, there is an acute need for Nigeria to get right the deployment of national revenue between recurrent and capital expenditure.

He decried the cost of governance, regretting that the highest percentage of the country's finances is consistently devoted to recurrent expenditure thereby leaving far too little for capital development projects.