Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar stirred the
hornet nest a few months ago about the need to restructure the country, and the
topic has since then been a hot debate in the political space with arguments
for and against.
Since then, prominent Nigerians have identified
with the call, describing it as a panacea for growth in the country. They opine
that a strong centre is the reason for the monumental corruption in the
country.
It will be recalled that prior to the 1966 coup,
the country was practicing ‘true federalism’ where all the regions were in
control of their resources, however, the regime of the late Gen. Aguiyi- Ironsi
abolished the regional system of government.
Many Nigerians recall with nostalgia how
the healthy competition between the regions prior to 1966 led to the
growth and development of the country with each region growing at their own
pace.
However, the call has been viewed with suspicion
by people who claim that most of those calling for restructuring are from
a section of the country who were mute about restructuring in the last
administration but suddenly found their voice, in a bid to distract the present
administration.
It will be recalled that
President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign promises hinged on fighting corruption,
reviving the economy and taming the growing insecurity.
There is no denying the fact that Nigeria’s unity
is being threatened by various activities of herdsmen in the North, agitation
for Biafra in the south East and militancy in Niger Delta.
Analysts say the restlessness being experienced
in all parts of the country calls for dialogue and restructuring of the
country.
Political observers noted that what Nigeria needs
is a restructuring of the mind and character and not restructuring of the
units, as according to them, fiscal Federalism also has it’s flaws and it’s not
the silver bullet that will solve all Nigeria’s problems as being proposed by
the proponents of restructuring.
Still basking in the euphoria of restructuring
debate, Atiku insisted that restructuring Nigeria is required to enhance
national integration and stability.
Atiku said this in a paper he presented at the
Late Gen.Usman Katsina Memorial Conference, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Memorial Hall,
Murtala Square, Kaduna.
The former vice-president explained that he
has been an advocate of restructuring for over a decade because he truly
believes it is the key to solving some, if not most of the nation’s problems.
He stressed that Nigeria had struggled to build a
nation where the component units would feel a true sense of belonging.
Atiku said, “As a country, we have struggled to
live up to this ideal. We have obviously not done enough to realise national
integration, and the survival of our democracy is still a work in progress.
“The cost to us has been enormous. We even fought
a civil war to forcibly keep the country together.
“Since the various amalgamations that created the
entity that we now call Nigeria, different segments of Nigeria’s population
have, at different times and sometimes at the same time, expressed feelings of
marginalisation, of being short-changed, dominated, oppressed, threatened, or
even targeted for elimination.”
He explained that other pressure groups had
expressed similar frustrations arising from a sense of exclusion and
helplessness, believing that their voices were not being heard or that they
were unable to hold those in power to account.
Similarly, General Overseer of the Latter Rain
Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, recently , told Northern leaders opposing
restructuring of the country that they are not following the footsteps of their
forefathers.
He made the disclosure at the golden remembrance
lecture, entitled: ‘Fajuyi and the Politics of Remembrance,’ organised by the
Yoruba Think-Tank for former military governor of the defunct Western Region,
Lt. Col Adekunle Fajuyi.
Bakare said the elders of the North, who, today,
are opposed to the call to restructure Nigeria have deviated from the ideals of
the founding fathers of Northern Nigeria such as the Sardauna
of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello and former Prime
Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa; leaders who were forerunners of Fajuyi in
the Nigerian hall of martyrdom.
He said,”The great Nigerian leaders from the
North made it clear in the series of constitutional conferences that heralded
Nigeria’s independence that true federalism with regional autonomy was the only
condition under which they would exist within the Nigerian nation.
“Need we remind those in opposition to
restructuring today that one of the main grouses of Nigerians of northern
extraction within the army and civil society after the first coup was the
abrogation of the federal system by the Aguiyi- Ironsi led government
“This, without doubt, was the main reason the
northern leaders and the counter-coupists, who took the lives of Aguiyi-Ironsi
and Fajuyi demanded a reversal of the unification decree and a return to the
federal system of government.
“Consequently, to oppose restructuring now, 50
years after, is to confirm the words of Aesop that ‘the injury we do and the
one we suffer are not weighed in the same scales.’
Hitting back at those claims, Senate Leader, Ali
Ndume in an interview rejected suggestions that the North is afraid of
restructuring.
According to him, “if there is a need to
restructure, if there is a need to redefine our existence as a nation, it
should be through dialogue”, as he pointed out that Nigeria came together
through dialogue. “When the colonial masters wanted to give us
independence in 1957, northerners said ‘hold on, we are not ready yet, let us
get our house in order”.
“So, the independence was not by force. All I am
saying is that whatever we want to do to make changes, it should not be through
violence but dialogue. It should not be through threat and all the negative
means that we are seeing daily.
“We came together by mutual consent. Why must we
separate through violence? It cannot work because we didn’t force ourselves on
anybody. And so, I don’t think it is right to use derogatory words on one
another.”
The Senate Leader noted that there are some
countries that do not have resources and they are surviving, saying in
other words, “there is no part of this country that does not have one
mineral or another. If the country is divided today, northerners will not
die.”
He said the resources everybody is talking
about, they didn’t come from anybody. God gave them to us. Nobody made you to
be Fulani, Igbo or Yoruba. It is God’s decision to make us what we are.
“If Nigerians want restructuring, I have no
problems with that. But it can’t be one part of the country, it must be
holistic. Then, there must be a proposal, there must be constitutional
amendment, there is referendum to be held before we can be talking of
restructuring.
“Recently, Britain exited from the European
Union (EU), the people didn’t fight. There was no life lost in the whole drama.
Again, I don’t think we should be dwelling too much on oil. The so-called
oil is gradually becoming non-fashionable.
Ndume noted that other sources of energy
are emerging everyday and time would come when nobody would be
talking about oil anymore.
“Meanwhile, find out the quantity of the
reserves of oil in the North, you will be shocked at what we have.
It is much more than what you can imagine.”
Meanwhile, former military Head of State, General
Yakubu Gowon, has thrown his weight behind those clamouring for the
restructuring of the country, saying there was nothing wrong with
restructuring, provided it is done within the “context of one Nigeria”.
Gowon made this comment when the Deputy Chairman
of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Sen. Shehu Sani, visited him in
Abuja last week.
He recalled that Nigeria was restructured under
his leadership as military head of state through the creation of 12 states from
the regional structure in 1967.
He said” You can restructure within one Nigeria
context. I did it in 1967. We created states to stop Eastern Nigeria from
seceding,”
“We had to do something to ensure the fear of
their secession did not exist – a serious issue of a part of the country
wanting to breakaway when we had already lost a part to Cameroun.
“If we had allowed the Eastern Region to go away,
the map of Nigeria would have looked funny, it would have been tilted one way.
“So we decided overnight to break the fear
through the creation of states. If we had to save the country, that was the
only way to do it.
“We also ensured that no state was too big or too
small to threaten the unity of the country,” he said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment