Give Us Restructuring Or Forget 2019 Election – Southern Leaders

Southern elders, at a colloquium titled ‘Restructuring: Challenges, implications and the way forward,’ have said unless the country is restructured, the region may not participate in 2019 general elections.

The colloquium, which had leaders from the South West, South East, South-South and North in attendance, was organised by the Island Club, Lagos.

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“The country is like a moving train without brakes and in order not to crash, we need to restructure. All regions must come together and agree on restructuring and everybody must say what restructuring means to them, and we must agree on restructuring before 2019 election. There is so much injustice in the country,” said Annkio Briggs, a Niger Delta activist.

Briggs, who disclosed that people from the region had given her the mandate to speak, called for the creation of a new Constitution or reversal to the 1963 Constitution.

“For instance, there are 419 local governments in the North and 365 local governments in the South and the north gets far more resources from the Federal Government than the people producing oil in the country. Niger Delta is producing more and getting less.

“We must have a new constitution or we can use the 1963 constitution and work on it. We can have a new constitution that will take care of these injustices like the issue of Fulani herdsmen and religion. If we cannot restructure, we should call the zones together to call for a referendum, so that each zone can determine how they want to live,” said the activist.

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Speaking also at the event was Professor Stephen Adebanji Akintoye, who stated that the federal structure has become harsh for the people, hence the need to restructure.

Akintoye, while accusing the Federal Government of corruption and inefficiency, said government has refused to pay attention to other export products because of oil revenue from the Niger Delta.

“Restructuring has become inescapable for Nigerians. The struggle for a rational federal structure has been a major concern since we were young men. Nigeria needs to restructure due to the harsh effect of the federal structure of Nigeria. Youths in South-East, Niger Delta and South-West are telling us that they do not want to be part of Nigeria anymore. It is under this that the cry for restructuring is growing louder.

“Some people are saying restructuring is a confusing idea and I dare say their strategy is clever, but not clever enough. We want a federalism that is widely acceptable and the best structure is federalism whereby each zone would be a federating unit and control and develop its own resources for the good of its people.

“This is the only solution to our nationality problem.The structure we operated in 1963 was very productive because each region had its constitution and controlled its resources,” he said.

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On his part, Professor John Ogu, a former Deputy Governor of Ebonyi State, attributed Biafra agitations to alleged marginalisation of the people from South-East.

Ogu said, “What IPOB is doing now is a cry for justice.They are saying the Igbo have been treated very badly and have been marginalised since the civil war ended, and it is only restructuring that can remedy some of those wrongs. It can be done by amending the 1999 constitution holistically or by creating a new constitution.

“Restructuring does not mean the disintegration of the country, but making Nigeria a federation and changing the unitary system of government, that the military handed to us, to a federal system of government to ensure security.”

Speaking also was former governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Mimiko, who said Nigerians would have no option than to vote out the All Progressives Congress (APC) if it fails to restructure.

“Restructuring is decentralising power to make a way from distribution and consuming arrangement for every federating units to increase its fiscal resources for development. The country is on a precipice. No one can predict what will happen on October 1. Any country that cannot boast of security for its citizens and property is not worthy of being called a country.

“We need to have state and local police to protect the lives of citizens and property. The ruling party has said voters should not vote for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2019 because of restructuring, so we are now watching to see whether the All Progressives Congress (APC) will restructure before 2019.”

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Labaran Maku, a former Minister for Information, said “Nigeria needs restructuring. It offers Africa and Africans a great hope if we can reform the structure and its internal powers. The majority of us believe that restructuring will make Nigeria a great country, and these kinds of debates are needed to ensure that restructuring works.”

Whereas Ayo Adebanjo, leader of the Afenifere socio-cultural group, said “The military introduced this constitution which thrives on a unitary system of government, but you cannot run Nigeria on a military system of government, because we have so many ethnic groups. We have passed that stage where people will try to make us think that restructuring is new. It is not.

“We must restructure now or the country may not survive. The North does not want to agree on restructuring because they are beneficiaries of the awkwardness of this 1999 constitution which was thrust on us by the military” he said.

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