General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye has called for the restructuring of Nigeria to forestall a possible breakup and agitation across the country.
Speaking at a symposium to mark the 60th Independence anniversary put together by the RCCG and the Nehemiah Leadership Institute on Saturday, Pastor Adeboye expressed that restructuring Nigeria must be done as soon as possible prevent a disintegration.
The symposium had in attendance; Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi; former Governor of Cross River State and former presidential aspirant, Donald Duke and a former Minister of Education, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili.
Prior to Adeboye’s statement on Saturday, there have been clamours from different individuals and socio-cultural groups that the country needs to be restructured.
Some groups in the South-East had also threatened to secede from Nigeria over what they described as the gross marginalisation of their region.
Adeboye reacting to this situation at the symposium themed ‘Where will Nigeria be in 2060?’, Adeboye said Nigeria needed to adopt a system of government that was unique to it.
He proposed a blend of American and British styles of government, saying;
Why can’t we have a system of government that is 100 per cent Nigerian, unique to us? For example, we started on with the British system of government, somewhere along the line, we moved over to the American system of government.
Can’t we have a combination of both and see whether it could help us solve our problems because in Mathematics if you want to solve a problem, you try what we call Real Analysis, then if it doesn’t work, then you move on to Complex Analysis and see whether that will help you. If that fails, you move on to Vector Analysis and so on.
He stressed;
I believe that we might want to look at the problems of Nigeria in a slightly different manner. Some people feel that all our problems will be over if Nigeria should break up. I think that is trying to solve the problems of Nigeria as if it is a Simple Equation. The problems of Nigeria will require quite a bit of Simultaneous Equation and some of them are not going to be Linear either – forgive me I am talking as a Mathematician.
The clergyman inquired;
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 is either we restructure or we break, you don’t have to be a prophet to know that one thing That is certain – restructure or we break up.
Now, we don’t want to break up, God forbid. In the restructuring, why don’t we have a Nigerian kind of democracy? At the federal level, why don’t we have a President and a Prime Minister?
Adeboye explained that if there is a President and a Prime Minister, responsibilities could be shared between them such that one is not an appendage of the other.
He said the president could control the Army while the prime minister controls the police, adding that if the president controls resources likes oil and mining, the prime minister could control finance, internal revenue, taxes, customs etc.
He added;
At the state level, you have the governor and the premier and in the same way, you distribute responsibilities between them in such a manner that one cannot really go without the other. Maybe we might begin to tackle the problems.
The cleric also noted that the place of traditional rulers must be recognised and restored in governance, noting that people respected and listened to their traditional rulers more than some politicians.
Adeboye explained;
If we are going to adopt the model, then we need to urgently restore the House of Chiefs. I have a feeling that one of our major problems is that we have pushed the traditional rulers to the background and I believe that is a great error particularly for a great country like Nigeria.
At the state level, you have the governor and the premier, and the same way, you distribute responsibilities between these people in such a manner that one cannot really go without the other. Maybe we might begin to tackle the problems.
He added;
If we are going to adopt the model, then we need to urgently restore the House of Chiefs. I have a feeling that one of our major problems is that we have pushed the traditional rulers to the background and I believe that is a great error particularly for a great country like Nigeria.
I find it very ridiculous that one will ask a traditional ruler to inform the chairman of his local government before he travels.
Adeboye expressed;
Go to any town in Nigeria, everybody in the town knows the paramount ruler in the town and they respect him (but) many of them don’t even know the name of the chairman of their local government.
The traditional rulers are the actual landlords, they control the respect of their people. Their people will listen to them much more, I am sorry to say than they will listen to some politicians.
He reiterated;
Without any doubt, we must restructure and do it as soon as possible. The United States of Nigeria is likely to survive than our present structure.
