- Says Debate Not For NASS Alone
- Restructuring Different From Dismemberment, Bakare Tells President
- Lashed-Out At APC Over Silence On Debate
- Calls On Buhari To Create Presidential Commission On Restructuring
By ‘Dotun Akintomide
As Nigeria celebrates 57 years of nationhood, the Serving Overseer of The Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare has questioned the call by President Muhammadu Buhari asking Nigerians to allow only the national and states’ assemblies lead the restructuring debate.
Bakare who was at variance with the President on his hardline stance that the National Assembly is the only proper and legal forum to address ongoing call to restructure the country, challenged the President to co-opt all national stakeholders in handling the debate.
On Sunday, President Buhari in his independence day broadcast again reasserted his position that federal and states’ lawmakers should lead the debate, saying “at all events, proper dialogue and any desired constitutional changes should take place in a rational manner, at the National and State Assemblies.
“These are the proper and legal fora for National debate, not some lop-sided, un-democratic body with pre-determined set of objectives,” Buhari said.
But Bakare in his State of the Nation Broadcast on Sunday made available to The New Diplomat entitled: “Pragmatic Steps Towards Restructuring Nigeria” stated that the low perception Nigerians had about lawmakers has made them expressed their worries and doubts as to whether they can successfully handle the restructuring process with far-reaching outcomes.
“Due to the reputation that members of the hallowed chambers have created in the minds of Nigerians, many have expressed doubts as to the ability and willingness of the National Assembly to midwife the structural, institutional and constitutional solutions demanded by Nigeria’s historical and present circumstances.
“As a result, Nigerians from all walks of life are questioning Mr. President’s recommendations as to proper channels for agitations, even though the National Assembly and by extension the State Houses of Assembly are the only available constitutional avenues for making peaceful change possible and violent change inconceivable,” he said.
Berating the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) over its failure to embark on the nation’s restructuring despite laying credence to it in its campaign manifesto, Bakare who is also the Convener of Save Nigeria Group (SNG) said the APC until recently has for a long time kept mum over the matter and often attempts to stylishly draw citizens’ attention to other non-contentious issues so as to buy more time and suppress the argument.
“In spite of the fact that the restructuring of the polity is implied in the manifesto of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the government has, for a long time, been silent on the matter and has, very often, drawn the attention of Nigerians back to the tripodal policy agenda of President Buhari, namely, anti-corruption, security, and job creation through diversification.
“However, after much evasion, the APC, two months ago, eventually constituted a ten-member committee headed by Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the current Governor of Kaduna State, to address the increased agitations for restructuring,” he added.
The clergyman further noted that in the context of a nation, “restructuring requires redefining the relationship between the people and the government, including taking another look at the structures and systems of governance as encapsulated in the constitution.”
To urgently address the restructuring demands, Bakare called on President Buhari to create a Presidential Commission for National Reconciliation, Reintegration and Restructuring through an executive order in full consultation with the Council of State and the National Assembly.
According to him, “the Presidential Commission should be given the mandate and the powers to facilitate, within ten years, the evolution of a functional and acceptable geopolitical structure subject to constitutional provisions while the 1999 Constitution is progressively amended. This Commission shall undertake a geoeconomic and geosocial path to geopolitical restructuring by creating geoeconomic frameworks, mending geosocial faultlines, and attaining a geopolitical climax.”
He tasked the federal government to lay out a ten year transitional window starting from 2018 to 2028 with proper framework to ensure succeeding governments achieve convincing outcome aimed at a restructured Nigeria.
It would be recalled yesterday the President also said in his words that “recent calls on restructuring, quite proper in a legitimate debate, has let in highly irresponsible groups to call for dismemberment of the country. We cannot and we will not allow such advocacy.”
However, Bakare who averred that restructuring is not an ambiguous term and doesn’t mean the dismemberment of Nigeria, asked Buhari to review his stance on it and purge out every skeptical tendency on the matter like a statesman mindful of the next generation of Nigerians.
“The president, the National Assembly, the Judiciary, the state governments, the State Houses of Assembly, the Council of State, political parties, the private sector, and the generality of Nigerians all have a critical role to play in initiating, implementing, sustaining and defending the process and its outcomes.
“We must think, not as sectionalists but as nationalists; not as skeptics who only see obstacles, but as optimists, who see opportunities; not as politicians, mindful only of the next election, but as statesmen mindful of the next generation,” Bakare concluded.
