NIGERIA DOESN’T NEED RESTRUCTURING – LAWAL KAITA

— 14th October 2017

•Says Yoruba, Igbo have no reason to complain of marginalisation .
How do you feel that after 50 years of the civil war that agitations are still coming from the same people? Don’t you think that maybe the Nigerian state has not adequately addressed the problem which the Igbo have been agitating for?

I can say that a small minority within the Igbo feels marginalized in their own expectations of Nigeria. But we the majority of Nigerians do not think that the Igbo are marginalized. They are everywhere and are doing well in commerce, business and so on. They have no reason whatsoever to agitate; they are agitating for what?

What is dominating public discourse today is the issue of restructuring even though there is no consensus on whether the nation actually needs it at this point in time. There does not seem to be an agreement between the Southern part of the country and the North on this matter. What is your perspective of the argument?

My own position is that Nigeria does not need any restructuring. I do not think Nigeria needs any restructuring. But having existed for 57 years, don’t you think it is high time the structure of the country is amended to suit the realities of the time considering that after all, the only thing permanent in life is change. Tinkering with the constitution is not restructuring. It may be part of it, but you do not have to restructure Nigeria. And I ask you what is restructuring. If you say restructuring, what do you mean?

In Nigeria today, restructuring means different things to different people. To some, it is true federalism in terms of resource control. To others like the position of the South West, it is a return to full regionalism. The East is also calling for true federalism and so on. But the agreement in all of these perspectives is that something needs to be done to the present structure. Don’t you think so?

I was part of the constitutional conference where we advocated for the presidential system and we voted against the parliamentary system. But don’t you think that Nigeria should be doing better than she is doing now? That is another angle to the question and I am not prepared to discuss that. Do you agree with those who insist that the North is reluctant to support the call for restructuring because they are benefitting from the existing structure? No, how can I agree with that? What other benefits does the North get from the present structure that others are not getting? As far as I am concerned, the North is not benefitting anything. What is the North gaining?

A typical example is the skewed number of local governments in favour of the North where the old Kano State,which includes the present Kano and Jigawa has 77 local governments, whereas Lagos State with its population has only 20. Considering that the federal allocations are shared among the three tiers of government, don’t you agree that this structure unduly favours the North?

I was a governor of Kaduna State for three months and I created new local governments out of the existing 17 or so then. Why did the governor of Lagos not create more to the number he wants?

Even though Lagos created new local governments, they are not recognized by the constitution and so do not get any allocation from the Federal Government.

Why don’t they receive allocation and why are they not recognized by the constitution? The highest revenue earner is the federal government, Lagos and those states that produce the oil. They are the highest revenue earner. The North does not get much in terms of revenue allocation.
www.sunnewsonline.com/nigeria-doesnt-need-restructuring-lawal-kaita/

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