By Ayo Kehinde
Mallam Garba Shehu
The Nigerian presidency has dismissed as unpatriotic and needless, heightened calls by Nigerians that the country must be restructured for it to function with equity and justice for its over 175 million people.
Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari, on Media and Publicity stated this in a statement on Monday. It was an apparent reference to the widely publicised statement on restructuring by General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye on Saturday and similar calls by prominent Nigerians and socio-political organisations in the country
Adeboye, who spoke at the 60th Independence Day Celebration Symposium organised by RCCG and the Nehemiah Leadership Institute with the theme, “Where will Nigeria be in 2060.”, had said, among others; “Why can’t we have a system of government that will create what I will call the United States of Nigeria? Let me explain. We all know that we must restructure. It’s either we restructure or we break, you don’t have to be a prophet to know that one. That is certain – restructure or we break up.”
A week earlier, the Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, who represented him at an interdenominational church service to commemorate Nigeria’s 60th Independence anniversary in Abuja, had made similar reference, thus :
“For us in Nigeria, Nehemiah should be taken as a metaphor for those Nigerians who either reside in Nigeria or outside, to cry to God to use the abandoned opportunities in Nigeria to address our challenges of nation building.
“Fortunately for us, our walls are not yet broken but there are obvious cracks that could lead to a break if not properly addressed. ”
Socio-political organisations like Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Afenifere and Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, have been unrelenting in their demand for restructuring of the polity for equity and justice to rein in the country. Even the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, made restructuring of the country one of its planks in its CHANGE Agenda manifesto during the 2015 general elections. When the call reached deafening heights in 2017, the APC set up a restructuring commitee headed by governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai on February 10, 2018. After winning the 2019 general elections, the party ate its words.
According to Shehu in his Monday statement; “The Presidency responds to the recurring threats to the corporate existence of the country with factions giving specific timelines for the President to do one thing or another or else, in their language, ‘the nation will break up’,” he said in the statement.
“This is to warn that such unpatriotic outbursts are both unhelpful and unwarranted as this government will not succumb to threats and take any decision out of pressure at a time when the nation’s full attention is needed to deal with the security challenges facing it at a time of the COVID-19 health crisis.
“Repeat: this administration will not take any decision against the interests of 200 million Nigerians, who are the President’s first responsibility under the constitution, out of fear or threats especially in this hour of a health crisis.”
” ”The President as an elected leader under this constitution will continue to work with patriotic Nigerians, through and in line with the Parliamentary processes to finding solutions to structural and other impediments to the growth and wellbeing of the nation and its people.”
