By Abiola Olawale
Eminent Nigerians and leaders of thought in the country on Thursday gave divergent views on how Nigeria should be restructured going forward.
Goodluck Jonathan, a former president of Nigeria, John Nwodo, the immediate past President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Attahiru Jega, a former chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Ayo Adebanjo, a chieftain of the Afenifere group are among those who weighed in on the multi-billion naira question while speaking at the 18th Daily Trust Dialogue program which interrogated thoughts and opinions on how best to restructure the country.
Jonathan, who spoke on the topic: ‘Restructuring: Why?How?’ said restructuring the country can’t be possible without tackling tribalism and nepotism.
He said the unity and peace of Nigeria is as stake if the country should divide itself into regions.
The former President said, “My administration elected six years ago to convene the 2014 national conference, which I inaugurated on March 17, 2014, in Abuja for the specific purpose of addressing some of the issues that had been agitating the minds of Nigerians. Like every other Nation, Nigeria is a project in progress and should confidently discuss her experiences and fashion out solutions to improve on her performance and the well being of all citizens. We should all do our little best in our little corners to overcome the challenges we face, and work hard to reposition our country for a greater and more prosperous tomorrow for our children. This cannot be achieved without deliberate effort to promote national unity and love of country by all our leaders and citizens. We owe ourselves and the coming generations a duty to reduce the bile and embrace one another so that restructuring for a better and greater Nigeria can be meaningful and guarantee the nation’s economic development and citizen’s welfare.”
Also Jega subscribed to the thoughts of Jonathan by saying the country will experience a large marginalisation of minority ethnic groups if the restructuring is successful. He said, “In many fundamental respects, creation of states has gone a long way to mitigate real and perceived marginalisation of minorities. The challenges and tensions that would unfold in any attempt to regroup states into regions or into mega 12 states, given that people have tasted relative autonomy, could only best be imagined. Relative autonomy once gained, is difficult if not near impossible to voluntarily surrender. If the major argument against the current 36state structure is that many seem economically unviable, there are other better ways to address that make them more viable.”
However, Nwodo believes that restructuring is for the good of Nigeria. He said the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria overthrew the sovereignty of regions over their natural resources and domestic security.
Nwodo said, “We should restructure because the constitutional history of Nigeria shows that only Constitutions of the Federal Republic of Nigeria made by all ethnic groups in Nigeria were the 1960 and 1963 Constitutions. The 1999 constitution overthrew the sovereignty of the regions over their natural resources and domestic security unleashing in the process an unprecedented fall of education standards, domestic security and economic well being. We must do all we can to restructure before the next election in 2023 because the level of dissatisfaction in the country as evidenced by the last #ENDSARS protest gives one the impression that any delay may lead to a mass boycott or disruption of the next elections to the point we may have a more serious constitutional crisis of a Nation without a government. To restructure Nigeria, we need a constitutional conference of all the ethnic groups in Nigeria. To use the current National Assembly as the forum for constitutional amendment grants a tacit recognition of the overthrow of our democratic norms by the enthronement of a military constitution by which they are composed. The outcome of the constitutional conference must be subjected to a public plebiscite in which all adult Nigerians should have the right to vote. This process should be open, it should be supervised by international agencies to validate it’s transparency and thereafter usher new elections based on its provisions and structure.”
Adebanjo also aligned with Nwodo’s view about restructuring Nigeria. He said restructuring is the the only way the country could get out of its present quagmire.
In Adebanjo’s words: “My view is that the 1960 and 1963 constitutions gave us more freedom and autonomy which we are all agitating for. Why we are emphasizing restructuring now? Because the 1999 constitution is fraudulent, it does not represent the choice of the people. Interestingly, when we talk of restructuring, some of our friends from the North will say ‘they want to break the country’. But anyone opposed to true federalism which is restructuring is the one who wants to break the country. The question of insecurity the country is facing now is because the governors do not have control over the security agencies in their states. That is what we need to address now. The Constitution we have now is a fraudulent constitution, it is not our constitution. The constitution has failed everybody. It is simply not working. I only hope the progressive elements in the North will persuade President Buhari to restructure the country now before everything burns to blazes.”
