Obasanjo Rebuffs Restructuring, ‘I Can’t Be Part Of It,’ He Says

Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo has kicked against restructuring of the country.

“I cannot be part of it,” said Obasanjo in an interview with Channels Television.

The former president said he would rather call for the restructuring of “our mentality” as Nigerians, than of the country.

According to Obasanjo, citizens should rather concern themselves with proper management of the country’s resources than agitate for exclusiveness.

“I have asked six different people who talk about restructuring and the six of them gave me different points of view and the other day some people came to me and what they were talking about doesn’t make sense,” he said.

“So now what are we talking about? We have a country that God has endowed, now the management of that endowment is now what we have put our hands on, all hands on deck and put out, how do we deal with it?

“Some of them are nostalgic about immediate the independence, that’s their restructuring and some of them are nostalgic about immediate post-independence, that is their restructuring, some of them are nostalgic about their tribe, that’s their restructuring, I cannot be part of it.

“My own restructuring is what I have said, we have to restructure our mentality, we have to restructure our mind, we have to restructure our understanding of Nigeria. What country do we want? And if we decide on what kind of country we want, how do we get that country? All hands on deck, how do we get inclusive, how do we get every Nigerian feeling a sense of… having a stake in the country.”

The WHISTLER notes that former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, is one of those at the forefront of calls for restructuring of the country.

“Only by restructuring can we guarantee Unity, Equity and Security for our nation.

“Along with the late great Chief M.K.O Abiola, I was a member of the former Social Democratic Party. The party’s manifesto included the following words, to ‘improve the people’s welfare and fight for social justice’. We in the SDP were the progressives. We were the party of Olu Falae, of Shehu Musa Yar’adua, of Abubakar Rimi, of Jim Nwobodo and of Bola Tinubu.

“So it surprises me today, and perhaps even shocks me that anybody that was elected on or connected to that platform would say he or she does not know what restructuring means”, Atiku had said in July.