Bakare seeks establishment of Commission on Restructuring

The Overseer of Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor ‘Tunde Bakare has added his voice to the call for the restructuring of the country saying this can be achieved through the establishment of a Presidential Commission on National Reconciliation, Reintegration and Restructuring through an executive order in consultation with the Council of State and National Assembly.

Bakare made this known while delivering his state of the nation address to mark the 57th independence anniversary of the country at his church auditorium Sunday.

He said though many proponents of restructuring have the belief that Buhari is against restructuring, but said going by his recent utterances and his interaction with him in the last seven years that belief is not true.

“Not only does the President want agitations managed through appropriate constitutional channels, he also wants a clarification of demands in concise terms, as well as propositions on practical pathways towards achieving those demands,” he said.

In the address titled, “Pragmatic Steps towards Restructuring Nigeria,” he said the buck stops at the President’s table.

“Mr. President, the buck stops at your desk and, as always, my earnest prayer is that you find the courage and political will to do what is right at this momentous period in the history of our nation,” he added.

He said the Presidential Commission which should be given the mandate and the powers to facilitate, within ten years, the evolution of a functional and acceptable geopolitical structure subject to constitutional provisions, while the 1999 Constitution is progressively amended.

The Commission, he explained “shall undertake a geoeconomic and geosocial path to geopolitical restructuring by creating geoeconomic frameworks, mending geosocial fault lines, and attaining a geopolitical climax.”

By this, he said the Federal Government will progressively devolve powers to the existing 36 states, which will themselves progressively evolve into a zonal arrangement.

The cleric further proposed the creation of six zonal commissions to be headed by zonal commissioners appointed from each zone, to work with the 36 state governors to facilitate integration.

According to him, implementation of this proposal would usher in breathtaking economic prosperity of the nation as each zone of the country would be empowered to harness their potentials.

“The zonal commissioners will be charged with a mandate to map out the economic potential of each zone, design or update, as the case may be, a zonal economic master plan,

and coordinate federal and state efforts towards transitioning into zonal economies within ten years, thereby harnessing the comparative resources of each zone to achieve globally competitive economies of scale and scope…”

He noted that the six geopolitical zones not only roughly reflect six sociocultural zones but also mirror six geoeconomic zones that can be deliberately cultivated over a period of about ten years within which political structures can be designed.

“The ten-year window is meant to cater for the concerns of parts of the country where the notion of restructuring is opposed due to perceived economic disadvantages.

Within the ten-year period, the six zones would have been aided to develop areas of comparative advantage,” he added.

He said he is an advocate of a progressive and pragmatic restructuring where the interests of all segments of the country would be taken care of.

Bakare added, “As for those calling for secession, they should bear in mind the fact that, before the creation of the Nigerian state, there was no Yoruba nation, there was no Igbo nation, there was no Hausa nation, neither was there an Ijaw nation.

“We must not be misled by nostalgia for a spurious harmonious past or the myth of homogenous ethnic groups that is far removed from reality.

The area around the Niger was marked with unrest, continuous intergroup conflict, subjugation, enslavement and oppression of the weaker by the stronger until Nigeria provided the possibility for peaceful coexistence.

“For this, we must appreciate the Nigerian state, we must celebrate our Nigerian-ness and we must gravitate towards strengthening our nationhood rather than cursing our blessing.”

He said the President, the National Assembly, the Judiciary, the state governments, the State Houses of Assembly, the Council of State, political parties, the private sector, and the generality of Nigerians all have a critical role to play in initiating, implementing, sustaining and defending the process and its outcomes.

“We must think, not as sectionalists but as nationalists; not as skeptics who only see obstacles, but as optimists, who see opportunities; not as politicians, mindful only of the next election, but as statesmen mindful of the next generation,” he said.