From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
The Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Chief Gani Adams, has called for immediate and urgent restructuring of Nigeria before the 2023 general elections.
He maintained that the restructuring must be done quickly if Nigeria must move forward as a country.
Speaking at Ile-Ife, Osun State, during the 2022 annual Oodua festival, Adams described as a political criminal, anybody who believes that elections should go on without restructuring.
‘We must be restructured whether they call it presidential system or parliamentary, a leader must emerge for his constituency,’ he said.
‘They must do that this year before 2023. Anybody saying they should do an election without restructuring this country is a political criminal who doesn’t believe any good thing about this country and what to empower him or herself at the detriment of the progress of the people.
‘Constitution amendment should come before the 2023 general election. I will not dissuade them from doing the election nor criticise them for doing the election because the vacuum must be filled in 2023. But for us to move forward as a country we must restructure this country to regionalism.
‘If we don’t do that, I strongly believe that no matter who is elected to that seat, he will not achieve anything with the current constitution because immediately you vote him in, he will be careful to tamper with the constitution.
‘Buhari is going now. He has a little time to correct the system from what it is today. He should call the parliament and stakeholders to amend the constitution to the model of 1960 and 1963 so that Nigeria can move forward.
‘If that is not done, I’m afraid this country will not last. We don’t need to deceive ourselves. The stage we are is a stage when the country is comatose. Things are not working well including the economy. Issue of insecurity is growing every day, no stable policy, investors are scared of coming to the country, no stable power supply and no improvement on infrastructure.
‘The military gave us the wrong constitution in 1999 and unless that is changed, not an amendment but total overhauling to have a stable country, if you don’t do that, don’t blame anybody for calling for secession.
‘Nigeria is running into debt every day. We are getting loans to run the government. About 60% of the money to be used for the budget will come through loans. The federal and state are getting loans, who will pay the loan?’