WHY RESTRUCTURING MATTERS TO ATIKU

Restructuring will engender national cohesion and promote healthy competition, contends Pepple Benepori

If there’s any issue that is largely misunderstood among Nigerians, it’s restructuring. It means different things to different parts of the country.

The mere mention of it leaves people from some parts of the country agitated and suspicious while others see optimism. Specifically, it’s one national question that largely puts the North and South on opposing sides.

For the people of northern extraction, especially leaders, it probably suggests a deliberate attempt by the South to reconfigure the Nigerian federation in favour of the South. As such, it’s a no-no whenever the resetting of Nigeria to achieve a more functional federation is discussed. This is the reason many leaders of northern extraction have spoken against it.

One of such persons is the All Progressives Congress (APC) vice presidential candidate, Kashim Shettima, who infamously dismissed restructuring and its proponents. In a manner widely considered insulting to the millions of Nigerians who seek restructuring of the country, Shettima downplayed the clamour for restructuring in Nigeria, describing it as a “madness” that can be stopped by good governance.

Shettima spoke at the book launch of a former Minister of Youths and Sports Development under the Goodluck Jonathan administration, Bolaji Abdullahi, who was the spokesperson of the APC. The event took place at the Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja.

Shettima, who was the Father of the Day, dismissed the clamour for restructuring, saying “To hell with restructuring.” According to the former Borno State governor, if jobs are provided and other sectors of the economy, especially the education sector developed, “this madness”, referring to restructuring, “will stop.”

To date, the APC vice presidential candidate’s poor rating across the country is a result of that faux pas and other baggage. His attack wasn’t just against the idea but also against regional blocks like Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, PANDEF, Southern Middle Belt Congress and some northern groups that see restructuring as a way out of Nigeria’s problems.

Given the dysfunctional nature of the Nigerian state, saying that restructuring is an idea whose time has come is an understatement. For the benefit of those who are suspicious of restructuring, the proposal isn’t making anyone, group, or region disadvantaged. Rather, it seeks to return powers to the original owners: The people. Simply put, it aims at making the nation more governable by weaning the centre of its many centralized powers and returning the same to the states.

The domino effect would cut across fiscal, security and even economic spheres of our national life. Only a Nigerian, who understands the pains and losses associated with centralisation of power at centre, appreciates how urgently Nigeria needs to restructure.

Among the presidential hopefuls, only the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has embraced this clamour that seeks to return Nigeria to the era of growth and healthy competition among its components units.

And the PDP candidate, who is now a frontliner in the presidential race hasn’t left anyone in doubt about his plans to restructure the country when he becomes President. Like our founding fathers, who drafted the 1963 Republican Constitution, which retained regionalism and a healthy revenue-sharing formula among other valuable features, Atiku has identified restructuring as one of the key ingredients to national viability.

In a manner that truly depicts him as someone who understands the pulse of the nation, the former vice president said he would restructure if the nation considers it a reality. This pledge alone, which is reassuring for the majority, who had lost hope of a working Nigeria, has gone a long way in convincing those who seek a better Nigeria that Atiku is the answer. According to him, “if restructuring is your priority, I will implement it. I’m far ahead of any other candidates in terms of restructuring and devolution of power.

“Insecurity is part of our restructuring issues, in other words, if we will have a state police or not will depend on our legislature. “In the US, we have state police, local police, even regional police and so on. I will surely propose the state police to our National Assembly if elected.

It is important to stress that long before now, Atiku had been an advocate of devolution of power, and restructuring, even when his region, the North, was not favourably disposed to them.

For instance, as far back as 2019, when he contested the presidential election we believe he won, he captured true federalism which restructuring is all about in his manifesto.

In my Covenant With Nigeria, his policy document, he pledged to: “Restore Nigeria’s unity through equity, social justice as well as co-operation and consensus amongst our heterogeneous peoples.

“Promote a true federal system which will provide for a strong federal government to guarantee national unity while allowing the federating units to set their own priorities.”

To understand how critical restructuring is to the rebuilding of this nation, Atiku, in different fora, underscores its import.

At one of the fora, the former vice president reiterated that restructuring of the country would be looked into after uniting the country. He explained that restructuring would be his number one assignment to give every section of the country a sense of belonging and tackle insecurity frontally.

“I will give a sense of belonging to every ethnic group. I will give a sense of belonging to every religious group. After unifying the country, then we tackle the insecurity,” he added.

Interestingly, Atiku has already assembled a team of constitutional lawyers to help him put together legislation that would be forwarded to the National Assembly to facilitate the necessary amendments to the constitution to ensure restructuring.

Unknown to those opposed to restructuring, a restructured polity would not only engender national cohesion but would also promote healthy competition, which ultimately leads to socio-economic development.

For Nigerians, who yearn for equity, fiscal federalism, viable sub-national governments, and national unity among others, Atiku deserves your votes.

  Benepori writes from Port Harcourt