• President must fix nation now – Ezekwesili, Onaiyekan, CAN
• Retired generals lament insecurity, nation’s woes at 60
• Those clamouring for restructuring insulting the North – ACF
The General Overseer, the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, on Saturday joined other prominent Nigerians to call on the Federal Government, led by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to urgently restructure the country to save it from breakup.
The revered cleric, who spoke at a symposium alongside the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi; former Governor of Cross River State and former presidential aspirant, Donald Duke and a former Minister of Education, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, warned that it was either the country restructured as soon as possible or it broke up. “You don’t have to be a prophet to know that one,” he added.
Prior to Adeboye’s statement on Saturday, there have been clamours from different individuals and socio-cultural groups that the country needs to be restructured. Some groups in the South-East had also threatened to secede from Nigeria over what they described as the gross marginalisation of their region.
The ruling All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government had prior to the general election in 2015 promised in the first part of its manifesto that it would restructure the country. It went ahead to set up a committee, led by the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, to work on the idea, but since the committee submitted its report, the government had maintained silence over the matter.
Meanwhile, at the 60th Independence Day Celebration symposium co-organised by the Redeemed Christian Church of God and the Nehemiah Leadership Institute, themed ‘Where will Nigeria be in 2060?’, Adeboye said Nigeria needed to adopt a system of government that was unique to it. He proposed a blend of American and British styles of government.
Adeboye, a former senior lecturer at the Department of Mathematics of the University of Lagos said, “Why can’t we have a system of government that is 100 per cent Nigerian and is unique to us? For example, we started with the British system of government, somewhere along the line, we moved over to the American system of government.
“Can’t we have a combination of both and see whether it could help us solve our problems, because in Mathematics if you want to solve a problem, you try what we call Real Analysis, then if it doesn’t work, then you move on to Complex Analysis and see whether that will help you. If that fails, you move on to Vector Analysis and so on.
“I believe we might want to look at the problems of Nigeria in a slightly different manner. Some people feel that all our problems will be over if Nigeria should break up. I think that is trying to solve the problems of Nigeria as if it is a simple equation. The problems of Nigeria will require quite a bit of simultaneous equation and some of them are not going to be linear either – forgive me I am talking as a mathematician.
“Why can’t we have a system of government that will create what I will call the United States of Nigeria? Let me explain. We all know that we must restructure. It is either we restructure or we break-up, you don’t have to be a prophet to know that one. That is certain – restructure or we break up.
“Now, we don’t want to break up, God forbid. In restructuring, why don’t we have a Nigerian kind of democracy? At the federal level, why don’t we have a president and a prime minister?”
Adeboye explained that if there is a President and a Prime Minister, responsibilities could be shared between them such that one is not an appendage of the other. He said the president could control the Army while the prime minister controls the police, adding that if the president controls resources likes oil and mining, the prime minister could control finance, internal revenue, taxes, customs etc.
He added, “At the state level, you have the governor and the premier and in the same way, you distribute responsibilities between them in such a manner that one cannot really go without the other. Maybe we might begin to tackle the problems.”
The cleric also noted that the place of traditional rulers must be recognised and restored in governance, noting that people respected and listened to their traditional rulers more than some politicians.
He added, “If we are going to adopt the model, then we need to urgently restore the House of Chiefs. I have a feeling that one of our major problems is that we have pushed the traditional rulers to the background and I believe that is a great error particularly for a great country like Nigeria.
“Go to any town in Nigeria, everybody in the town knows the paramount ruler in the town and they respect him (but) many of them don’t even know the name of the chairman of their local government. The traditional rulers are the actual landlords; they control the respect of their people.
“Without any doubt, we must restructure and do it as soon as possible. A United States of Nigeria is likely to survive than our present structure.”
Also, Duke, who was the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party in the 2019 elections, said at the event that Nigeria needed to review its structure so that constituent parts could be economically productive and then contribute to the central.
He added, “The leadership of today is supposed to prepare for the future of the country. What can we do that by 2060, we will be in the committee of great prosperous countries? We are going to have 400 million people within our space and as the population has grown rapidly, the economy should also grow.
“But for all this to happen, we need to look at the structure of our nation. That is why there is clamour that we should restructure the country. It is not to break the country; it is not to frustrate the development of any side or constituent part. It is incumbent so that we don’t restrict our development.
“Between now and 2060, the focus should be that we have a skilled population; a healthy population and the skills must also embrace technology. Then, restructure the leadership so that even if poor leadership is thrown up at the centre, it does not frustrate the constituent parts of the country.”
While calling for the restructuring of the judiciary, he noted that the country needed purposeful and visionary leadership and one that had the will. “We say the right things; we all know the problems. But we do not have the will, not just the political will but the human will. That will is what we need to make it happen,” he added.
Also, the Ooni said every region must be allowed to develop at their respective pace, adding that Nigeria’s diversity is its strength. He pointed out that government must also work towards the diversification of the economy.
He added, “Every region should develop at their respective pace. Let’s use our diversity as our greatest strength. The capacity of wealth is in your state of mind. Emphasis should be on developing and empowering our youths. I want to see a nation where people come out in their 20s to contest elections.
“2060 is around the corner, let’s be intentional about our nation’s growth. The emphasis should be on developing and empowering our youths. Everything in the nation, including the mainstay of the economy, needs diversification. It is very easy for all of us to talk, but to walk the talk is a very herculean task.”
He pointed out that Nigeria used to be one big, happy family, with respect and honour for the different territories as he noted that making the best out of the country should be the focus of every Nigerian.
The Ooni also emphasised that traditional rulers as the closest to the people had important roles to play in nation building but that they had been disregarded constitutionally.
Diversify economy, fix nation now – Ezekwesili, Onaiyekan, CAN
Similarly, a former Minister of Education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, noted that Nigeria needed fixing and that the electorate must be determined to bring an efficient political leadership to power.
Ezekwesili, a former Vice-President of the World Bank, Africa Division, said, “The dominant political culture is the monopolistic service that has retarded and stagnated the country. So, we want to produce a value-based political class that understands ethical policies, competence and how to build systems and procedures that enable the growth of the society.
“We cannot afford to be spectators. We all should therefore arise and fix our nation; we are the Nehemiahs. Politics undermines everything; individuals, family, community and governance. If we don’t fix politics we will be wasting a lot of time. There’s nothing about a bad situation that cannot change, but the people must be ready. Only the electorate have the capacity to fix politics.”
Also, Archbishop Emeritus and former Catholic Archbishop of Abuja Diocese, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, said though Adeboye was entitled to his own opinion, Nigerians were also calling for the same thing.
He added, “I still repeat what I said the last time in my interview with Sunday PUNCH that we need to restructure, whatever you mean by restructuring means that things cannot continue like before. We must find a way of improving the way Nigeria is run so that everybody may feel at home with it because there is a lot of frustration and I think I am not the only one saying it. I do hope the people in government also know this. The question probably is how do we go about it?
“The important thing for us is that we need to agree that we need to change things and if we all agree we need to change this, then we all sit down and find out how we need to change things and this is where the whole issue about coming together to talk in all sincerity is all about. Let us be sincere with ourselves and stop playing games.”
Also speaking, the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Ignatius Kaigama, said, “I want to see restructuring before a restructuring. And what do I mean? There has to be an attitudinal restructuring, otherwise even if we engage in political restructuring, it will only be a political mirage.
“After 60 years, we have matured and perfected the act of greed and corruption and all that the local government chairman or the state governor or the President or the National Assembly members are concerned with is to extract from what belongs to all their constituencies.”
On his part, the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Kaduna State and National Vice Chairman of CAN (19 Northern States and Abuja), Rev Joseph Hayab, said the call restructuring reflected the desire of many Nigerians.
He stated, “If you share this country into six groups, you will know over four and a half groups are yearning for restructuring. Even the one and a half that are acting as if they do not want it are only doing that for selfish reasons because they do not care about the progress of this country as they are worried about what they will get.
“We really need to come up with a system that will work for us. The system we have now has caused us more pain than progress. People are tired, frustrated and angry because the country is not moving forward.”
Retired generals lament nation’s woes at 60
Retired Major General David Jemibewon; a former General Officer Commanding, 1st Division, Nigerian Army, Major General Abiodun Role (retd), and others have lamented the poor state of the country 60 years after it got independence from British colonials.
In an interview with Sunday PUNCH, Jemibewon, who is a former military governor of Oyo State and ex-Minister of Police Affairs, said it was disappointing for Nigeria to be facing so many problems at 60, and called for a national dialogue to device the means of fixing the problems.
He said, “At no given time should we have problems as we have presently. Really, it is unfortunate. This country does not deserve what is happening to it now with the experience we had with the problems of Agbekoya, coups, and counter-coups, as well as the civil war. We thought that with the end of those incidents, we would have reached a period of stabilisation and progress.
“So to experience the problems of insecurity now is very disappointing; it draws us back from the development that we are working and hoping for. What is happening now is not good enough for us. The best thing is to look at what can be done to remedy the situation.”
Jemibewon said while he would not blame the current government for the security woes of the country, he called on government to install frameworks that would stem the tide of insecurity.
Also speaking with Sunday PUNCH, Role said “political management” was responsible for problems like insecurity, corruption, and strife, saying he believed Nigeria had reached the peak of its challenges.
“Political management has a multiplier effect on all other sects of any nation. If a nation is not well managed politically, it will experience what we are experiencing like insecurity, strife, corruption, and so on,” he said.
On his part, Major General Obi Umahi (retd) described Nigeria at 60 as a “giant in the sands. A big adult wearing a diaper.”
Umahi noted that the country had yet to attain its expected height, especially in terms of security, saying, “We are just far from where we were supposed to be because Bill Clinton says, ‘If you are wobbling, you should be wobbling to the right direction.
“All of us know that we are at the lowest ebb of security. Insecurity is overwhelming us in every part of the country and the required action now is state police. You can’t be doing one thing the same way and expect different results.”
Also commenting on the country’s state at 60, General Idada Ikponmwen (retd) said the division in the country was so visible that only drastic measures could keep everyone together.
He said, “The problems are too many. The way things are going is not the way our founding fathers conceptualised the country. They wanted a country that would be united even though we are divergent in culture, tradition, religion, and background. They wanted to mould a union that would be in the best interest of the country.
“They wanted a nation where our diversity would be an asset, where the various components will appreciate, compliment and love one another, have their various governments and a central government that will be common to all to take care of federal issues.”
Ikpowonsa said with the way things were, most citizens had lost confidence in government and the rulers, adding that only drastic measures could sustain the union.
We need clarity to take a position on restructuring — ACF
The Arewa Consultative Forum has reiterated its stance that advocates of restructuring need to clearly define the term in order to get others to buy into it.
The National Publicity Secretary of the ACF, Mr Emmanuel Yawe, said this in response to inquiries about the subject by Sunday Punch on Saturday.
He said “The term restructuring as it is being used today means different things to different parts of our country.
“To the man in the South West it may mean fiscal federalism, to the person in the south south it could mean resource control to the South East it may mean something else. We need to have a clear perspective on what those calling for restructuring mean to enable us take a stand.
“What we hear from most of those calling for restructuring these days are insults on the north. You cannot continue to insult a people and expect them to clap for you.
“If you ask me, we have been restructuring since 1914. With the amalgamation we had North and South, then we had three regions then four; we now how 36 states. We need to be clear about what we want really.”
– Sunday PUNCH
