Restructuring is the only solution that can stop the agitation for disintegration currently pervading Nigeria, the National Coordinator of the Oodua Peoples Congress and the Aare Ona Kakanfo-designate, Chief Gani Adams, has declared.
According to him, Nigeria, as it is presently constituted, is not sustainable.
A statement by his Chief of Staff, Segun Akanni, obtained by newsmen on Tuesday, said Adams stated this during the inauguration of the United Arab Emirates chapter of the Oodua Progressive Union in Dubai.
He said, “It is our belief in the OPU that the time is now for the country to take the option of restructuring. We also warn that any restructuring that is not tailored along regional line, reflecting the six geo-political structure of the country, would be a mere waste of time and resources.
“Nobody is calling for the disintegration of Nigeria but a lot of things are wrong with our democracy back home and to address these anomalies, we must restructure the country along regional lines.”
The OPC helmsman will be installed as the 15th Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland on January 13 by the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III.
Adams added, “Regionalism is most suitable for the country at this time as each region will be governed by laws that best suit it and, I think, the experience and success recorded in the defunct Western Region best register the need for a return to regionalism.
“Already, groups, such as the Indigenous People of Biafra and the Niger Delta Avengers, have, more or less, shattered whatever illusions we may retain, regarding the Nigeria we are living in. While Nigeria will obviously be better off remaining a nation, it is also true that a surgical operation is required to take out the cancer of disintegration currently ravaging the country on every side.
“Nigeria is supposed to be a Federal Republic but it operates a unitary constitution where the states, like children, simply go to Abuja at the end of every month to collect food. They cannot even feed themselves.
“Is it not utter shame that the descendants of Oyo Empire, Kanem-Borno Empire, Benin Empire and others have to go, cap in hand, to Abuja, collecting allocations that cannot even pay workers’ salaries when the traditional system, which guaranteed full employment and a decent standard of living, can be recreated through proper federalism like we had in the First Republic?”
The statement added that the OPU, led by its leader in the UAE, Owoseni Akindutire, attended the event which held at the Landmark Hotel.
The Head of Chancery of the Nigerian Embassy in UAE, Kemi Ogunbanjo, expressed her satisfaction with the OPU members.
