Dappa Maharajah.
THE Pan Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has flayed President Mohammad Buhari over his remark on the clamour for restructuring, saying it is the wish of over 150 million Nigerians for the sustenance of democracy.
In a communiqué read by the spokesperson, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, after a meeting in Akure yesterday, declared that the sovereignty rest with the people and not any institution of government.
Odumakin protested that the trivialisation of the call for restructuring by President Buhari, insisting that power resides in the people and must be the one to determine the way forward for the country in crisis.
Meanwhile, Buhari, in his national broadcast after 103 days medical vacation in London, acknowledged the growing agitations for restructuring but stated that the appropriate institutions for national discourse were the National Assembly and National Council of State.
Odumakin added that Afenifere believes that the nation needs a Council Assembly elected by the people of Nigeria to deal with the question of restructuring, so that the country can be put on a sound footing.
According to him,” It is clear at this point that we cannot resolve any of the problems confronting Nigeria today except we restructure.”
While positing that the country should re-enact and revert to the 1966 constitutional model, the group emphasized that this would guarantee development, productivity and accountability.
He described Nigeria as a “dysfunctional country sliding towards the edge of the precipice with crimes arising astronomically, the economy in a pivot state and all the forces of desecration have been let loose.
He lamented the prevailing hardship and economic crunches faced by Nigerians, decrying the soaring prices of food stuffs and their implications to the poor people.
“It is only authors of confusion who are saying today that when you talk restructuring to tell people there are ten definitions, there is only one definition of restructuring.
“Nigeria must move from a unitary constitutional arrangement to a Federal constitutional arrangement as we had in the First Republic. Any other thing outside that is nothing from history.”
The group noted that those who criticized restructuring and are those benefiting from the “lopsidedness and the question of leadership in the very state, we say to them that a restructured Nigeria is going to be dealing with productivity not sharing.
“It is because we are doing sharing now that is why we have invented all kind of structure to enable cheating, to enable domination,” he said, affirming that it would restore equal and even distribution of wealth.
“Once we go back to productivity under a restructured Nigeria, every section of Nigeria would demand only what they have on their soil and they will bring tax to the centre.
“So, there is no need for anybody constructing any structure to cheat any other person, even if you have no structure they will be effective. Leadership will be different from what you have now because politics under a restructured Nigeria would be about service.”
Afenifere justified the clamour for restructuring, saying it would be “like we had in the First Republic. So, it is not going to be about using politics to make money or using politics as a trade: the structure will change under a restructured Nigeria.”
—
Akingboye Joseph Oluwaseun
