The federal government have been called to open up Nigeria for foreign investors to come into the country.
The charged was made on Sunday 15 November, 2015 in Warri by Hon Ochor Chris Ochor, the Executive Director Social Services Development, on the Board of the Delta State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (DESOPADEC), in a goodwill message to the Movement for Democracy and Good Governance (MDG), second Annual Lecture, titled, “Repositioning Nigeria on the Part of Greatness and The Challenges of Ethnic, Religious and Regional Politics” held at the Urhobo Cultural Centre, Okere road.
Hon Ochor who was represented at the Occasion by Hon. Festus Ikogwe, a onetime Secretary to Ukwuani Local Government Council, advised the government of President Mohammed Buhari to open its doors and allow countries such as the Asian Tigers and other developed economies to come in, especially in this period of economic crises, to turn around the economy and industrialise the country.
Regretting that the country is still lagging behind in industrialization after many years of independence, he said the major way out of this problem is through acceleration of the economy by external sources and technical expertise, which would serve as means of augmenting Nigeria’s domestic resources in order to carry out effectively, her development programmes and raise the standard of living of her people.
However, Hon Ochor opined that to achieve this, the country need to first battle with some factors such as Ethnic, Religious and Regional Politics that has eating deep into the Nigerian system, and had been very big, militating issues towards a better Nigeria, especially when it comes to do with employment/appointment of management bodies to take charge of organisations in Nigeria.
Advising the government on the way forward, he called on the government to shun all form of ethnic, religious and regional politics in terms of citing projects or appointments of management teams.
“In Nigeria, we have witnessed a situation whereby a particular project sited in an area that is not environmentally friendly with the project simply because it is zoned to the area”. He said.
According to him, “we must go back to the original spirit of the constitution, before public office became a quest to provide jobs for the boys”.
Making reference to Delta state, the special guest of Honour said that the issue of ethnicity, religion and regional politics can be well noticed with the criticism that had trailed every action and statement of the present government, under Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, warning, that if Deltans are not careful this three plunged evils may bedevil the present administration.
Concluding, he thanked God for giving the governor the spirit of endurance, and warned that racism in any form should not be allowed to thrive in the country or in Delta state.
“Racism is a heinous crime and we must not allow it to have its way into the present administration, as these distracters, preaches racism to the extent that it becloud them from accessing the Delta state Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa who had offered himself for leadership on competence, but they rather prefer to access him on tribal or selfish consideration”.
