Restructuring Nigeria is the only viable option for the country to make progress in its developmental quest, according to some elder statesmen and thought leaders who have continued to drum up support for the idea.
They expressed the unanimous opinion at the 2nd annual lecture of the Akintola Williams Foundation in Lagos.
One of them, the former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Mr Emeka Anyaoku, insisted that Nigeria must restructure to avoid disintegration.
He said, “I have consistently expressed the view that to achieve greater political stability and the deserving socio-political economic development in the country, thereby tackling the worsening challenges the country faces in many sectors, Nigeria must restructure its present governance architecture. And it must do so by returning to the true federalism, which our founding fathers negotiated and wisely agreed in the 1960 and 1963 constitution to be the most suitable structure for the stability and development of our multi-ethnic and multi-religious country.”
On his part, former United Nations Under-Secretary-General, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, is of the belief that implementing a restructured governance may start with ideas from the various fora on the subject and not through another national conference.
He said, “There cannot be any other option in my view than the determined and collective actions of all Nigerians to mould a vibrant nation out of this multiplicity of nationality that constitutes the Federal Republic,” he said.
“It appears to me, as I hinted earlier, that there is a national consensus on this – to try to preserve Nigeria. It is easy to lead a nation or to organise a nation when everybody is of the same nationality, the same religion, the same language. But the real challenge is to mould a nation out of this multiplicity.”
Despite repeated calls for the restructuring of the country, the Federal Government has said such a move wasn’t its priority.
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