By Amos Okioma
Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson has joined other proponents of restructuring, stressing that it is the key to unity, stability and economic prosperity of the country.
A statement signed by Francis Agbo, Chief Press secretary to the governor said those champion restructuring crusade are patriots of egalitarian,just and fair Nigeria.
The former Chief of Defence Staff and a chieftain of Afenifere, a Yoruba socio-cultural group, General Alani Akirinade (Rtd) asked President Muhammadu Buhari to take bold steps to initiate the process for the restructuring of Nigeria to ensure true fiscal federalism.
He spoke while delivering a public lecture with theme, ” Restructuring and the Dawn of a new Nigeria” organized by Bayelsa State government as part of activities marking the 6th anniversary of Bayelsa State under Dickson.
The retired General insisted that restructuring is unavoidable and inevitable for Nigeria.
According to him, history was repeating itself as the current political climate and agitation for restructuring had deepened the national question, highlighting the very issues that Nigeria had grappled with before and after independence.
He recalled that when former President Goodluck Jonathan convened the National Conference everybody had thought that he would have acted with express resolve upon receiving the conference report but he delayed and prevaricated until he was defeated in a landmark presidential election.
He said Buhari also has been carrying on as if government is a radical dis-continuum and would have nothing to do with the conference report, asserting that he would make sure that the report ended up in a permanent cooler or archives.
” President Buhari should go immediately for the clusters of consensus and low – hanging fruits by initiating a Bill for the structural un-bundling of an overburdened centre through the removal of several agreed items from the concurrent Exclusive List and their devolution to the constituting states in a way and manner that does not enfeebled or endanger the manifest destiny of the nation,” he said.
After Akirinade’s lecture a panel of discussants was constituted to appraise his paper with a retired permanent secretary in the ministry of power and energy, Ambassador Godknows Igali as moderator.
The panel comprised former governor of old Anambra State, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, former Delta State chief of staff, Prof. G . G. Darah, spokesman of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin and National president of Arewa Consultive Youth Forum, Shetimma Yerima.
In their separate contributions they noted that restructuring was desirable for Nigeria.
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