Restructuring is inevitable with state of things in Nigeria –Omolegan

Prince Idowu Omolegan, is a lagos based constitutional lawyer and human rights activist. In this interview with INIOBONG IWOK, he said the position of the President that Nigeria does not need to be restructured leaves more confusion in the land as he has failed to bring forth a workable option. To him with the state of things in the country at present the only workable option is to restructure the country

How did you react when the President said the problem with Nigeria was not about restructuring, but the process of doing things?
I don’t know what people are saying when they talk about restructuring of the country, is it about the way things are done?

Even if we are to restructure, which the majority of Nigerians are clamouring for, President Muhammadu Buhari cannot say we would not restructure the country, even when everybody is talking about it.

As a Nigerian, and if you are sincere with the state of affairs in the country you would agree that it has become inevitable.

If the President says, the problem with the country is about the process: let him bring a blue print in which way things should be done, may be it would help the system and check Fulani herdsmen killings, cure badoo and other issues.

But if the process is to remain like this and nothing is done about it, then is not for the nation’s best interest.

Look at the fuel scarcity, he seem helpless, Buhari cannot say we don’t need restructuring, he is not a military man, he seem confused I don’t think he can move the country forward, alot of people are thinking by now, things would have changed, but you go to the street and see the suffering of Nigerians.

There has been talk that he is detached from his ministers and he needs to urgently reshuffle his cabinet, do you share that idea?
That also may be an issue, because it took him about six months to appoint this set of ministers, he may not want to run into the hands of godfathers, and he would consult Oyegun, that may take him another six months to do.

This President is not moving, the administration is not moving. Look at when he was abroad, nothing was on ground, the NNPC man was doing as he likes and no one could check him, even when Kachikwu raised the issues of contract scam they settled the issue among themselves, personally I don’t think the President is sincere.

Personally I would say, let us not play with security issues. I think what we need to do is to check them and see how the funds are utilised.

We have to be vigilant, you know Soyinka has advised him to stop the blame game and get down to work which Nigerians elected him for.

The attacks are barbaric and alarming, it makes one to wonder if Boko haram is actually subdued and this one is coming up and the response has been this slow; no Nigeria would be happy with the response of the government, it is unfortunate, it is very slow.

What are the security agencies doing? It makes one to wonder if they are culpable, even to think of what the security agencies are doing, the police and army are there with all other security agencies and all these killings are going on.

Setting up a committee is a useless option, this is war, and it should be treated as such. Rather than Buhari to send soldiers and police to the place, what are the committee members going to do, to carry guns?

The committee is just another jamboree, let them treat the issues the way it was treated in Delta and other states, and this has now aggravated the President’s position, because when there are little issues here in the South he sends soldiers, why not also in the North?

These people have declared war on us and it should be treated as such, the committee is a camouflage, it is clear that this governments is confused.

Politician being what they are, the way we play our politics here is very crude unlike the western world. Here politicians want to ensure they run down governments.

When PDP was in power; the APC was promising heaven on earth, that they would change the country when they get to power, but they are in government now, they have not been able to do it.

When you want to fight corruption, expect it to fight back, and it is fighting back, what is happening now in the country seem like their handy work.

What has he forgotten in office to want to come back? Maybe if we see some level of progress in the next one year, if unemployment among Nigerians improve, people can eat three square meals, maybe we can give him another four years, if we have to continue with this suffering we would not vote him, let him go, so much is happening.

The anti graft war to me has not really yielded the anticipated fruits. Until we can see prosecution and jailing then we can believe in the war.

Plea bargaining is not bad, but it is not the way it is practised in America and the advanced world, we often do everything upside down here.

They still punish in America, even when it is applied. But what is happening is that: alot of people here are siphoning money and they only drop little portion of it and they are set free.

All of our politicians are rouges. I just wish we can have another mega party where there are people we can trust.

Then we can safely say we have an alternative to this government. This government has failed, you cannot spend four years and there is nothing on the ground.

His anti corruption war is selective, look at Obanikoro he is working freely, because he has joined APC and dropped little portion of the money he siphoned.

The problem is the operators of the constitution, cross carpeting should be done within the law.

You cannot jump from one party to the other, in the United State, there are people that are identified with the Republican, while others are Democrats and they are known as such.

We need to even ask ourselves if we are practising democracy, we are not, because what we are practising is unitary system, the Central is too powerful and that is not helping us with the state of things.

Quote
Even if we are to restructure, which the majority of Nigerians are clamouring for, President Muhammadu Buhari cannot say we would not restructure the country, even when everybody is talking about it. As a Nigerian, and if you are sincere with the state of affairs in the country you would agree that it has become inevitable. If the President says, the problem with the country is about the process: let him bring a blue print in which way things should be done, may be it would help the system and check Fulani herdsmen killings, cure badoo and other issues.