Adams Agbo, Kaduna
For Nigeria to be a leading light and take her proper place in leadership role in Africa, restructuring of the country is the only panacea. This is because if a people are in a place they don’t want, they can’t give their best for development.
An elder statesman, Dr. Kunle Olajide stated this in Kaduna State recently.
The medical doctor who was fielding questions on “Nigeria at 59” explained that he was a member of the 2014 National Conference convened by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan whose report never saw the light of the day.
Dr. Olajide said that what they aimed at addressing in that conference was to go back and restructure the warped structure left by the British colonial rule. He explained that after the amalgamation of 1914, the then colonial administration bulkanise Nigeria into three regions and that was the beginning of problems in the country. He further explained that when Nigerians took over the reign of the country at independence in 1960, the bulkanisation continued but on political basis thereby bringing the problem of agitation being witnessed in the country today.
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Dr. Olajide said that to ensure that the opportunity of putting the wrong things right never eluded the people, the conference had representatives from all sections of the society, obas, obis and emirs. There were also retired military officers, retired justices, politicians from the first and second republics, students, market women and disabled people. He explained that the 2014 conference had 600 resolutions.
The resentment of Kwara State people as it is, emanated from these bulkanisations. The people from this area want to be with their brethren from the south-west but are in the north by accident of bulkanisation, he said.
The military intervention in 1966 worsen the situation, he also said. According to him, “The military administrations created states and put state capitals in their towns or villages of cronies.
“Some sections of Delta State people for instance, even though had state, but are not happy with the capital at Asaba, which a former military leader did to pacify his wife,” Olajide said.
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Dr. Kunle also said, “The bill presented from the 2014 conference was to include referendum in the Nigeria constitution, because there’s no democratic country in the world without referendum in their constitution.”
‘Those against the recommendation of the National Conference should tell Nigerians why the ruling party the All Progressives Congress (APC) set up the el-Rufai panel in 2016. That panel also recommended a lot of transformations, he further said.
The elder statesman explained,”The sovereignty surrendered to the National Assembly is a partial one. If the national legislators are deadlocked in any debate they are suppose to go back to the people because they are servants of the people not bosses, the recent example is the Brexit in the UK.”
According to Dr. Kunle, what is democracy if a state assembly can promulgate a law and can’t implement it. The state legislators after enacting a law, wait for the Federal Government to monitor it, what then is the use of the state legislature,” he queried?
What we the proponents of the restructuring are saying is that, “Decentralize the power from the Federal Government. A situation where the Federal Government takes 55% or more of the revenue, state 25% and local government 15% should be reversed because the people are in the local government and not the federal capital,” this is our stance on restructuring, the doctor added.
