FEMI ADESINA SAYS: RESTRUCTURING ANOTHER FORM OF OPPOSITION
FEMI ADESINA
SAYS: RESTRUCTURING ANOTHER FORM OF OPPOSITION
POLITICS – It is reported that the special
adviser media to President Muhammadu Buhari, Femi Adesina, has described the
ongoing calls for restructuring of the country as another form of opposition.
Meanwhile Adesina spoke Friday at the
change we need Nigeria initiative annual lecture with the theme “disintegration
or restructuring: the way forward.
Adesina observed that people who have
been in power for 16 years are now the champions of restructuring.
According to him, talks on
restructuring should not be accompanied with disintegration pointing out the
Nigeria can restructure without falling apart.
Recalling that Nigeria had been
restructuring since independence, he stated that the administration of
President Buhari is not opposed to restructuring but will not do anything that
will splinter the country.
He said “The topic of today
Disintegration or Restructuring: Which way Nigeria, is topical, germane, is
current. But then I have my own opinion about the topic.
“When we talk of restructuring we
don’t necessarily need to accompany it with disintegration. Because we can talk
restructuring without falling apart.
“In the history of Nigeria there was
a time where the various people and communities lived in this space that is
today called Nigeria. And then the colonial masters came, formed what is called
the northern protectorate, southern protectorate that was restructuring of what
has subsisted. And then in 1914 precisely, the northern and southern
protectorate, were amalgamated into one country, that was another
restructuring. Did it come with any cyber -rattling or did it send the country
into tailspin, no.
“And then we we got to a point that
we had regionalism in the country, the regions were formed and we begin to
grow, that was another restructuring, it happened almost altrusively and each
region begin to work on its own pace.
“Eventually Independence came.
Independence came we had parliamentary system at the beginning and we continue
to grow.
“Today, we have a presidential system
of government that is another form of restructuring from parliamentary to
presidential.
“And then there was a time we had a
unitary system when the then Gen. ironsi tried to formalize through the
unification decree. We have a unitary system which to a large extent still
subsist in the country, is a form of restructuring. Don’t forget there was a
point in this country we had diayache – President Babangida was at the center
and the civilian governors were in the state, another form of restructuring.
Did we disintegrate? No, we didn’t.
“Nigeria has always restructured.
There was a time we had 12 states, and then at a point it became 19 and then to
36 states, that is restructuring.
“Then why must restructuring then be
accompanied with cyber -rattling, it is restructuring or disintegration that is
what I disagree with.
“Restructuring will come, this
country will be renegotiated, restructured but then we will not disintegrate.
“I begin to get suspicious at times
that is this call for restructuring another form of opposition? When you found
people who have been in power for 16 years now be champions of restructuring,
so I begin to suspect that restructuring is becoming another form of opposition
in Nigeria”
“Nigeria will eventually be
restructured. This Government is not opposed to restructuring but the
government is opposed to anything that will splinter the country.
“We will get to where we are going on
restructuring and Nigeria remain one united indivisible entity. That is my
thought. And from the first paper I have heard I know this issue will be
dissected properly today and at the end we will come up with something that is
pragmatic, something that is not emotive, something that is not knee jack,
something that can take this issue and clamour for restructuring forward,” he
stated.
On his part, spokesman of Pan Yoruba
group, Afenifere, Yinka Odunmakin, disagreed with Adesina saying given the
level of agitations over the unjust nature of unitary Nigeria which we misname
federalism today, it is clear that there are two options before the country –
restructure or disintegration.
“As one of the leading light of restructuring
calls, my choice obviously is that we must restructure and the restructuring we
ask for is to restore Nigeria to a federal spirit. We must reject the 1999
constitution whose unitary sport is at the core of most of our problems.
“But if we remain obstinate and
refuse to address the structures of Nigeria, we risk the fate that befell the
USSR, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia; they have all disappeared from the world
map. Let that not be the fate of Nigeria,” he said.
