No restructuring, no 2019 election –Southern leaders

Prominent leaders from the Southern
part of the country yesterday said
without restructuring and devolution of
powers, there may be no general election
in 2019.
This formed part of the discussion held
at a colloquium on restructuring
organised by the Island Club, Lagos.
The colloquium titled ‘Restructuring:
Challenges, implications and the way
forward’, was attended by prominent
leaders in the South West, South East,
South South and the North.
Niger Delta activist, Annkio Briggs, who
was one of the discussants said she had
the mandate of the Niger Delta people to
speak on their behalf. She said if the
country does not restructure, there would
not be elections in 2019.
Annkio Briggs said: “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.
“For instance, there are 419 local
governments in the North and 365 local
government 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.”
The lead discussant, Prof. Stephen
Adebanji Akintoye, said the federal
government has become inefficient and
corrupt because of oil revenue from the
Niger Delta. He said the abandonment of
export products that were helping Nigeria
has become a problem.
“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.
Prof. John Ogu, a former Deputy
governor of Ebonyi State, who
represented the President General of
Ohanaeze Ndigbo, John Nwodo, said the
marginalisation of the South-East and the
unfair treatment meted out to the Igbo
from the end of the civil war till date
were the factors that aided the rise of
separatist groups like the Indigenous
Peoples of Biafra (IPOB).
He 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.”
Former governor of Ondo State, Olusegun
Mimiko, said restructuring is not about
the North against the South.
“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.”
A former Minister for Information,
Labaran Maku, agreed with the
consensus on restructuring. He 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 kind of debates are
needed to ensure that restructuring
works.”
Ayo Adebanjo, a chieftain of Afenifere
chastised northern leaders who are
opposed to restructuring. “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.
General Alani Akinrinade condemned
what he described as the deafening
silence from most prominent northern
elders over the quit notice given to the
Igbo living the north before October 1 by
northern youths.
He said: “Besides a few northern elders
who criticised the northern youths for the
quit notice given to the Igbo, I am sad
that most of the elders I expected to
have condemned it have maintained a
deafening silence.”

Source:Sunnewsonline