What ACF, Afenifere, Ohanaeze-Ndigbo leaders said at the restructuring debate

PROMINENT Nigerians from different ethnic groups on Thursday took turns to talk on the vexed subject of restructuring at the 18th Daily Trust Dialogue.

Those present at the venue of the summit included, former President Goodluck Jonathan, President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nwodo; a chieftain of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo and the Chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum, Chief Audu Ogbeh, among others.

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The 1999 Constitution is a fraudulent document, we must discard it – Adebanjo

SPEAKING on the theme: ‘Restructuring in Nigeria: Why? How? When?’, a leader of Afenifere, the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Ayo Adebanjo said the 1999 constitution meant to guide and guard the citizens of Nigeria is fraudulent. He added the people could not afford to be in a democracy by a document bequeathed to them by a military dictator.

He argued that for any meaningful discussion to hold on a better structure for the country, the document should be discarded and in its place, a people-generated constitution in the mold of the 1960 and 1963 constitutions should be revisited.

Adebanjo said, “This is not the constitution that Nnamdi Azikiwe, the Sardauna of Sokoto and Chief Obafemi Awolowo agreed to. All the problems we are having today is because of the fraudulent constitution that we are operating today.”

While making a case for state police, the elder statesman said modern philosophy for security is local policing.

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Restructuring panacea to insecurity, others – John  Nwodo

IN his remarks at the summit, former President-General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nwodo said, “We must restructure to revamp our agriculture. When I speak of restructuring, some of my northern Nigerian friends have suggested to me that I do not want the North to partake in the oil revenue of Nigeria.

“Well, I have just outlined the indisputable fact that oil is a fast-drying resource for earning of foreign exchange. The truth is that the reliable source of revenue now is agriculture

“The Netherlands is today the largest exporter of food in the world. Its cross-sectional area is about half the size of Niger State. It is the world’s largest exporter of potatoes. Its revenue from vegetables and dairy contributes more than$100bn annually to its economy. The secret is education, better mechanised farming, growth of green farm technology, drone monitoring systems and land reclamation by building of dams.

“Northern Nigeria is Nigeria’s greatest treasure in agriculture. Northern Nigeria is blessed with diverse livestock production with its capacity for dairy production. It has various tubers of potatoes, yam, cassava and cocoyam.

“Under a restructured Nigeria, Northern Nigeria will earn more from food production than the Netherlands. We must restructure because our current electoral system is dysfunctional and does not elicit confidence.”

Nwodo also said restructuring would address insecurity in the country.

He stated, “We must restructure to reduce insecurity in our country. While I was working on this speech on Monday, 18 January 2021, I paused to read the news for the day. I saw the following headlines: Bandits kill octogenarian, 14 others in Zamfara, Kaduna attacks

“Cops arrest Police Sergeant for robbery in Port Harcourt• Robbers kill 22-year-old IT prodigy in Lagos; Gunmen hack Catholic priest to death, kidnap brother in Niger State, Bandits abduct 17 persons in Niger State. All these in one day.”

On when Nigeria should be restructured, Nwodo said, “We must do all we can to restructure before the next election in 2023 because the level of dissatisfaction in the country as evidenced by the last #EndSARS protest gives one the impression that any delay may lead to a mass boycott or disruption of the next elections to the point that we may have a more serious constitutional crisis of a nation without a government.

“To restructure Nigeria, we need a constitutional conference of the ethnic groups in Nigeria. To use the current National Assembly as the forum for constitutional amendments grants a recognition of the overthrow of our democratic norms by the enthronement of a military constitution by which they are composed.”

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Restructuring absolutely necessary — Audu Ogbeh

THE former National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, Audu Ogbeh, in his case, said, “We are in a country where the only big business is the government.  Nwodo made a very important point. The economy of this country is dying so fast.

“We say the 1960 constitution was very good. If it was so good, why was there a coup on January 15, 1966 with that bloody massacre of leaders both military and civilian and six months later, there was a counter-coup and the civil war where two million people, mostly in the South-East, died. What was the cause if the constitution was perfect? The big issue is the economy. In dealing with the problems confronting us, restructuring is absolutely necessary.

“In what shape is the question? Will states surrender their autonomy, like Jega said, very unlikely. Are we returning to the regions of 1960? Very unlikely, that is where the problem lies.”

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North not against restructuring — Baba-Ahmed

Baba-Ahmed said it was not true that the North is opposed to restructuring.

He stated, “The North has never opposed restructuring on the basis of ignorance. When a person says he does not understand it doesn’t mean he is stupid.”

“The North is completely interested in restructuring without conditional ties. We are willing to engage anybody anytime, anywhere. We are Nigerians, we think Nigeria is not working for the North nor working for anybody.

“We believe it can be fixed and it has to be fixed by all Nigerians on the basis of respect, on the basis of an understanding of what works for all of us. It is wrong to say the North is opposing or will oppose restructuring, it is misinformation. What we will not accept is a situation where the North is put on the defensive and made to agree to everything other parts of the country throw at it.”

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Bad governance responsible for calls for restructuring –Jega

FORMER National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, identified bad governance and the failure of the current system to address the myriad of socio-political economic problems facing the country as largely responsible for the growing agitation for restructuring

Jega said, “After a critical evaluation of the benefits versus the costs of each of these notions of restructuring, I believe that the starting point of desirable and serious, even realistic, restructuring is equitable redistribution of power and resources from the Federal Government to the sub-national governments.

According to him, dismantling the current states structure and reconfiguring the states into pre-1966 regions, or into six geo-political regions or even into12 states of 1976/7 are unrealistic.

He stated, “The social and political costs of such an undertaking would by far out-weigh the benefits. In many fundamental respects, creation of states has gone a long way to mitigate real and imagined/perceived marginalisation of minorities.”