Eminent Nigerians and ethnic national groups yesterday insisted on
restructuring of the federation, to serve the greater good of all and
not just some interests.
They expressed this
opinion in Lagos at the ‘Handshake Across Nigeria’ summit organised by
Nzuko Umunna in partnership with The Core Federalists. The theme of the
summit is ‘Nigeria Beyond Oil.’
Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Prof. Wole Soyinka and Gen. Ike Nwachukwu spoke on a similar note.
Prof.
Soyinka, the keynote speaker, said: “We want the government to
understand that they are part of the community and have been given a
mission of carrying out the will of the people. When we talk about
governance, we are talking about an instrument for the execution of the
people’s policy. Insecurity has reached a certain level that even when
we bring experts in, they wonder what exactly they have come to do. “One
way of stopping the bloodbath is to reconfigure the nation. States must
be given maximum control over their resources.
“Those insisting
on restructuring do so because they know that there is something wrong
with the state of Nigeria. Many times, Nigerians have come together to
proffer solutions and the way forward for the country, but after
spending so much time and effort, nothing ever comes out of it. The
recommendations are left to gather dust. How much longer shall we
continue like this?”
Ohaneze leader John Nwodo said “those
campaigning against restructuring in Nigeria have painted an unfortunate
and untrue picture that those of us in support of restructuring are
doing so in order to deny the northern states who have not yet any
proven oil reserves of the ability to survive. This is unfortunate. The
new model we propose for Nigeria recognizes that revenue in the world
today is promoted by two main sources namely, human capital development
leveraging on technology to drive the critical sectors of the economy
and agriculture.
“Nigeria beyond oil must contemplate the
implementation of legislative independence to the federating units,
sovereignty of mineral and oil resources to the federating units, a
painstaking resolve to support all electoral processes and candidates
that would bring about this change.”
Afenifere leader Ayo
Adebanjo slammed President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi
Osibajo for singing discordant tunes on restructuring.
