Restructuring, only panacea to Nigeria’s under devt- Soyinka, Gambari, others

As the presidential campaign for the 2019 general election kicked-off at the weekend, prominent Nigerians across board yon Monday gathered in Lagos to speak on what they believe that the future of the nation should be,

and they were unanimous on the need to restructure the country and allow states have maximum control of the resources available in their states for the benefit of their people.

Gathered at the Muson Centre, Onikan Lagos at a parley tagged: “Handshake Across the Niger,” with the theme: “Nigeria beyond Oil,” to take a position on what they believe will be the best way forward for Nigeria include Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka; Ambassador Ibrahim Gambari, General Ike Nwachukwu (/rtd);

Afenifere leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo; former Minister of Information, John Ini Nwodo; a leader of Ndigbo, Prof. Anya Anya; Dr. Tokunbo Awolowo- Dosumu as well as presidential candidates of Young Progressives Party (YPP), Kowa Party and Youth Democratic Party (YDP), Prof. Kingsley Moghalu; Mr. Sina Adegbenro and Mr. Victor Okhai respectively among others.

While Prof. Ango Abdullahi spoke on the need to let Nigerians into the debate on restructuring, a representative of the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, commended the gathering for taking the initiative on the need to move the country forward.

Noting with sadness the high level of insecurity in the country as well as the disregard for the rule of law, among others, Soyinka asserted that the country needed to be reconfigured.

According to him, for a country blessed with abundant natural resources to realise its full potentials, states must be allowed to have maximum control of their resources, saying doing this would allow them to set their priorities right as to what their focus should be contending that the effects of playing religious card by the country’s leaders was grievous.

On the theme of the parley, Soyinka described it as symbolic, saying: “The handshake is symbolic, it is a gesture of solidarity. The handshake brings the best in us, that we are all one, it is handshake of forgiveness.”

He, however, charged the Nigerian youths to mobilise themselves in order to transform governance in the country, saying it was time to do so collectively as they could not do it individually, even as he also charged them not to belly ache, but hold on to what could bring developmental stride.

“It is time, you can’t do it individually, you have to come together and choose a representative. The change has to be authentic and sloganeering. So what we are looking at is not just handshake across the nation, but a handshake across history,” Soyinka said.

Chief Adebanjo, in his remarks, insisted that restructuring was the best for the country to realise its full potentials, asserting that there was nothing confusing about it as it is being made in some quarters.

The Afenifere chieftain, who went down memory lane to the 1954 Constitutional Conference attended by the country’s founding fathers, including the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, stated that it was based on its outcome that regions were allowed to run and take possession of resources in their areas under a true Federal System.

He said this led to the developmental strides recorded in the then Western Region and Awolowo could run Free Education Programme and other things without borrowing a penny from anywhere.

“Chief Awolowo had free education because the resources was in the region. Don’t let anybody confuse you, if the President cannot understand restructuring because of his educational deficiency, it is going back to what we were practising before 1966,” the elder statesman said.

Also speaking, former Minister of Information, Nwodo, argued that the restructuring being demanded must be one that would give sovereignty to states on education, health, mineral resources, among others, adding: “Our model of sharing must go for a growth model, we must transfer more responsibilities and powers to states.”

Also speaking, Dr. Awolowo-Dosunmu, who is former Nigerian ambassador to The Netherlands, said that the leadership that modern day Nigeria requires was one that understands and appreciates the problems and challenges of a future of the country beyond oil as global demand for fossil fuel continues to drop.

While noting that what was being discussed was clearly the future “of our children, and our grand-children and great grand-children” Awolowo-Dosunmu, affirmed that there was no way the kind of development that was expected could be realised under the current system.

The country, she said, would have to devolve powers to allow the states have control over their resources the way they wanted it.

“What we are talking about clearly is the future of our children, and our grand-children and great grand-children. In our usual manner, we pray that it will be better for our children than it has been for us.

“We have been told here today that the future without oil is likely to be fraught with all sorts of difficulties if we don’t start planning now. We have been told that only the countries that developed their human capital do well economically.

“And we have been told that the future will belong to those who train their children, who teach their children to be innovative. The future is going to belong to technology,” she said.

While the YPP presidential candidate, Moghalu, who is former Central Bank deputy governor, said the best form of restructuring would be to allow Federal and regions operate as the only two levels of government, Fagbenro,

who is contesting the 2019 presidential poll on the platform of KOWA Party, said the reason why Nigeria had not worked as a country as expected was powers were concentrated at the centre to the detriment of the others.