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Former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Emeka Ayaoku, has said that there was the urgent need for the country to be restructured along federating units or the political leaders must be ready for its imminent break up.
Anyaoku, who was speaking yesterday as guest speaker at the 10th Senator Abraham Adesanya memorial symposium, at the Shell Hall Onikan, Lagos, with the theme: ‘Leadership and the Future of Nigeria’, noted that the country as presently constituted could not realise its potentials or develop because it was defective in structure, while advocating for the return to the 1963 and 1956 constitutions.
Anyaoku, who was also the country’s former foreign affairs minister, suggested the division of the country into eight federating units, from the present six, while mid-west and middle belt region should be created to join the present state six.
He stressed that several of the states in the country were no longer viable and was unnecessary, adding that they should be converted to administrative zones, whose number would be determine when.
He said if implemented the propose restructure would reduce cost of governance, facilitate economy productivity and make the regions be self-reliance and bring a sense of unity, ones among the citizenry.
“Nigeria as presently constituted with its federal structure cannot develop or realise it potentials, it must revert to the 1963, 1956 constitution. We must restructure the country into eight federating units comprising the present six geo-political zones; while the mid-west and middle belt regions should be created,” he said.
“The present states structure which is not viable should be retained but turned into administrative zones. The number would be determined when this unit is created, additional zones would be created to take care of marginalisation agitations when it arises.
“This model would reduce governance by over 80percent and would facilitate economic growth, and bring about a shift from the present structure of depending on sharing of revenue allocation and bring about a sense of national unity,” Anyaoku posited.
Also speaking at the symposium, President-General of Ohanaeze Ndi-Igbo, John Nwodo, warned that the patience of Nigerians was being taken for granted by the political leaders, stressing that only restructuring of the country along federating units could guarantee good governance and accountability in the country.
Nwodo added that successive administrations had failed Nigerians, because the country was poorly structured, while warning that the country was in a danger of imminent break up if it was not restructured in view of its current challenges.
Iniobong Iwok
