…‘Let’s have short-term restructuring before polls’ — Prof. Jega
Former Federal Commissioner for Information and South-South leader, Chief Edwin Clark, and ex-chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, yesterday, again, canvassed urgent restructuring of the country to nip in the bud the spate of secessionist agitations in the country.
While Clark noted that what the banned Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB), and Yoruba Nation agitators were currently doing in their agitations for self-determination would be child’s play, if Nigeria was not restructured, Jega said the country needed to be urgently restructured, even only on a short-term basis, before 2023 polls
According to Clark, the agitation for self-determination and secessions will definitely increase, the security situation of the country will worsen, while the conduct of 2023 general and presidential elections will be threatened, if the country is not restructured.
Clark, who noted that the South, North and the entire country were calling for restructuring, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently convoke a Representative Assembly or Town Hall meeting to consider Governor Nasir el- Rufa’i, of Kaduna State’s All Progressives Congress, (APC), Committee Report on restructuring or that of 2014 National Conference report.
Addressing newsmen yesterday at his Asokoro residence, Abuja, the leader of Southern and Middle-Belt Leaders Forum, (SMBLF), warned that President Buhari must not allow Nigeria to break due to what he described as the authoritarian attitude of one individual, stressing that restructuring had become very imperative.
He said this was so because it remained one of the key priority issues in the APC’s manifesto when it was formed and during the 2015 Presidential campaigns which had now been abandoned on the assumption of office by the President.
On his part, former National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, advocated a short-term restructuring before the next general election to address myriads of challenges confronting the country. The former university don stated this at the 2021 Public Lecture of the Achievers University, Owo, Ondo State, in the lecture, titled: “Towards stabilising the Nigeria Federation”. He, however, accused the Executive and Legislative arms of the Federal Government of treating the restructuring issue with levity
Prof. Jega noted that both arms of the Federal government “were not serious in making the restructuring a reality as the two arms of the government had been treating the restructuring with levity” .He, however, expressed optimism that restructuring could be achieved if the stakeholders could do the needful, advocating a short-term restructuring before the 2023 general election.
