ABUJA-Former Minister of Health, Professor ABC Nwosu has vehemently refuted the claims by an elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai that uninformed Igbo were championing the cause of restructuring which he ( Yakassai) referred to as a Yoruba agenda.

Nwosu who is one of the Igbo leaders from south east said he was surprised to read a person in the mould of Yakassai make such a fallacious submission.

He said that Yakassai was utterly wrong in his assertion, saying that restructuring though firstly proposed by the Igbo people has now become a national agenda. Recall that the northern leader had on Monday opined that uninformed Igbo were championing the cause of restructuring referring it as a Yoruba agenda. But in his reaction to the development, Nwosu who spoke exclusively to Vanguard on Tuesday said that it was at the 1994 Abacha Conference that Igbo leaders comprising the former Vice President, late Dr. Alex Ekwueme, former Biafran leader, late Chukwueme Odimegwu Ojukwu, former governor of old Imo State, Dr. Sam Mbakwe and others made a presentation on the matter. According the Nwosu, the presentation also articulated rotational presidency, the 6 geopolitical zones, devolution of power and resource control as Igbo agenda to the conference. He said: Yakkasai is wrong, very wrong and I don’t know why she should utter such a fallacy. Everybody knows that the south west boycotted the 1994 Abacha conference. Every Nigerian knows. It was at that conference that the Igbo after a 6 months meeting of how Nigeria can be better produced a programme on restructuring, devolution of power, etc and sent its very best to the conference, namely late Dr. Alex Ekwueme, late Chief Emeka Odimegwu Ojukwu, De Sam Mbakwe and others to that conference. “It was at that conference that the Igbo through a motion from Dr. Ekwueme proposed rotational presidency and the 6 geopolitical zones, devolution of power and resource control. They were all in the Igbo memorandum. The Igbo memorandum was adopted at Mkpoku Igbo conference in April and I was the chairman of that Mkpoku Igbo conference. I was also the secretary of the Pius Okeigbo committee that prepared that memorandum on restructuring, devolution of power and the 6 geopolitical zone. I was sent to Abuja to run the Igbo Secretariat to see to these. Prominent Igbo are still alive and can testify to it. Such persons include Gen Ike Nwachukwu, Commodore Ebitu Ukaiwe. They are many. “So, it is annoying to the extreme to read an elder statesman talk of uninformed Igbo championing a cause. Restructuring is now a Nigerian desire and the sooner everybody realised that, the better. “But having been so involved in the preparation, presentation of the memorandum to the conference, in the running of the Secretariat that produced the conference, I feel compelled to correct this information from Tanko Yakassai. He is so wrong, very wrong. “The Igbo restructuring agenda goes even to proposal arrangement for the Nigerian Army, not divisions. It goes into Police. It is all-encompassing. It is very strong on resource control and also supported the south south strongly in getting the resource control even the 10% that was given finally. So I don’t know why he should say that. We are neither championing a Youruba cause or the Yorubas championing our cause. “I thought we are all favorably disposed to restructuring a Nigerian that is not working and I don’t like people talking from the two sides of their mouth. “I don’t want to accuse him of ignorance. I am saying he didn’t say the truth. That’s all I am interested in and I have said what the truth is. The reports of the conference are there which I think he was a member of. It was whenever there was crisis, it was Senator Olusola Saraki that formed the group. Yar’Adua was there. “So, I don’t know why he should be saying that we are championing a cause which we, the entire Igbo ethnic group proposed after a 6 months preparatory meeting that included the very best of Igbo including Professor Ben Nwabueze. He still alive. “I don’t why he should say that the uninformed Igbo are championing a cause being proposed by the Yoruba. I don’t know why. Is restructuring a Yoruba agenda? It is a Nigerian agenda. Knowing him personally and having participated with him in a conference and being given copies of his book, I am completely perplexed that he said this. “Why does Yakkasai malign ndi Igbo by describing them as uninformed? Why does he abuse Ndigbo when they are the people most worried about their situation in Nigeria? Restructuring is a Nigerian desire.”


Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/09/restructuring-tanko-yakkasai-wrong-to-say-uniformed-igbo-re-championing-yourba-agenda-prof-abc-nwosu/

Yoruba has been on this restructuring talk since Mid-60s. In fact a lot of traction has been gained as a result but when military regime do coups they waste the gains and we had to start afresh. A lot of hope put on Obasanjo as a civilian President to make things happen but he failed. Igbo is a new boy on the block when it comes to restructuring agenda.

Always talking about IGBO
una no like una name again since we are IGBO you people can answer IBO or Yogbo it sounds the same

Ibo man with Ibo sense, he is not comfortable with the assertion that they are pushing Yoruba agenda but he is comfortable with the insinuation that they own 70% of Lagos industries. Isokay.

Igbo Amaka

MayorofLagos:
Yoruba has been on this restructuring talk since Mid-60s. In fact a lot of traction has been gained as a result but when military regime do coups they waste the gains and we had to start afresh. A lot of hope put on Obasanjo as a civilian President to make things happen but he failed. Igbo is a new boy on the block when it comes to restructuring agenda.

you lied. Nigeria was operating a regional system of government in the 60's before the civil war which is the bed rock of igbo's restructuring plan proposed by the igbo leaders in the 90's. You want to steal the glory

MayorofLagos:
Yoruba has been on this restructuring talk since Mid-60s. In fact a lot of traction has been gained as a result but when military regime do coups they waste the gains and we had to start afresh. A lot of hope put on Obasanjo as a civilian President to make things happen but he failed. Igbo is a new boy on the block when it comes to restructuring agenda.

Mid1960s ke?what was dere to restructure in the 60s when tinz were ok and evry one happy with the status quo?Indomie generation forming old.

deltaisgreat:
you lied. Nigeria was operating a regional system of government in the 60's before the civil war which is the bed rock of igbo's restructuring plan proposed by the igbo leaders in the 90's. You want to steal the glory

Regional government or not had nothing to do with restructuring. It depends on what regional government you are talking about. The one ibo put us in on Jan66 or the one before that?

SIRmanjar:


Mid1960s ke?what was dere to restructure in the 60s when tinz were ok and evry one happy with the status quo?Indomie generation forming old.

Exactly! Yoruba was ahead of the political curve and had been pushing resturcturing back in the days of JS Tarka and the MiddleBelt Movement. I bet Nwosu did not know this?

Divide and rule tactics.

Divide and rule tactics. Whle the north keeps milking south dry, when will the south realise this

MayorofLagos:
Yoruba has been on this restructuring talk since Mid-60s. In fact a lot of traction has been gained as a result but when military regime do coups they waste the gains and we had to start afresh. A lot of hope put on Obasanjo as a civilian President to make things happen but he failed. Igbo is a new boy on the block when it comes to restructuring agenda.

And you're not ashamed to tell whoever wants to listen to you about how yourbas have been the first to clamour for it and yet failed to achieve it. That is failure bro.. Not an achievement, u should be hide in shame that your people have not yet smelt restructuring Nigeria. When your people gingers enough for the actualization of restructuring in the country, then you can come back online and make mouth(because that's the only thing you people are good at) maybe then we can give listening ears to the thrash you wrote up there

MayorofLagos:


Regional government or not had nothing to do with restructuring. It depends on what regional government you are talking about. The one ibo put us in on Jan66 or the one before that?

b4 the nzeogwu coup...nigeria was a proper federation with devolved powers.

The only thing the country was facing was corruption and minorities suppression...

Wen aguiyi came, he continued the regional system but suspended devolution of power temporarily.

Wen gowon/awolowo came, they destroyed the regions and created the 12 states, while continuing with unitary govt.

Obj/murtala created 19 states and went further to institutionalise unitary govt in 1979 constitution.

There wasnt much agitation in nigeria from 1970 to 1985....people were contented with how things were because of recent past experiences plus oil boom

In 1994 was when the shout for restructuring started. It was spearheaded by alex ekwueme and supported by the west. The only thing that came out of it was creation of 6 more states and the geo political zones.

Restructure is not a yoruba agenda...its a southern agenda.

If restructure includes resource control, the ss will be highest gainers because of oil.
If restructure is only devolution of power, state police and increased oil share to states, then se will be the biggest winners cos they will be able to control security in se which is in the hands of the north now and rebuild most federal infrastructure that was left to decay
If restructure means regionalism, the sw will be the biggest gainers cos they have lagos, have access to sea and are homogenous

Indomie generation Igbo proving a man as old as Nigeria wrong destroying existing fact. This is hypocrisy.
Naturally is Yoruba that's observing true federalism in Nigeria while the Igbo are the least. WHEN WILL BIAFRAN PIGS LEAVE YORUBA LANDS?

Some of them clamouring for restructuring will hate this comment and be reporting it so that the mods remove it but that's were true federalism and restructuring start from.

The North with their divide and rule tactics. Always dividing the south. Se and sw always fighting will favour them.

Thebabenextdoor:


And you're not ashamed to tell whoever wants to listen to you about how yourbas have been the first to clamour for it and yet failed to achieve it. That is failure bro.. Not an achievement, u should be hide in shame that your people have not yet smelt restructuring Nigeria. When your people gingers enough for the actualization of restructuring in the country, then you can come back online and make mouth(because that's the only thing you people are good at) maybe then we can give listening ears to the thrash you wrote up there

Coup plotters with their decrees eroded Yoruba gains over the years. There has been tremendous gain made. Did you not read Prof. Osinbajo's response to Atiku? If you havent you need to.

deltaisgreat:
you lied. Nigeria was operating a regional system of government in the 60's before the civil war which is the bed rock of igbo's restructuring plan proposed by the igbo leaders in the 90's. You want to steal the glory

Present this Igbo Agenda Nwosu is talking about. Where is it?

MayorofLagos:
Yoruba has been on this restructuring talk since Mid-60s. In fact a lot of traction has been gained as a result but when military regime do coups they waste the gains and we had to start afresh. A lot of hope put on Obasanjo as a civilian President to make things happen but he failed. Igbo is a new boy on the block when it comes to restructuring agenda.

You have good point here but do it with respect.

deltaisgreat:
you lied. Nigeria was operating a regional system of government in the 60's before the civil war which is the bed rock of igbo's restructuring plan proposed by the igbo leaders in the 90's. You want to steal the glory

Don't mind the revisionist, that's typical afonja way of reasoning. Highly treacherous people! Everyone knows that Nigeria was operating regional government that gave semi autonomy to the respective regions until the civil war that ended in 1970.

Yourubas are the problem of this country. When Ojukwu was clamoring for restructuring/separation, it was their foolish brother that betrayed him. Now that nobody is talking trash.I bet hard it been biafra won the war, they would have tried to claimed the glory







That's why they would forever be considered as cowards

yomi96:
Divide and rule tactics. Whle the north keeps milking south dry, when will the south realise this

Tell that to your brother who is busy chasing shadows. Even ABC Nwosu was clever in the interview to say that nobody is pursuing anybody's agenda, that it was a pet project of all regardless of who initiated it yet the op is here arguing on started the demand for resource control.

Lerio:







That's why they would forever be considered as cowards

Yourubas are the problem of this country. When Ojukwu was clamoring for restructuring/separation, it was their foolish brother that betrayed him. Now this nobody is talking trash.I bet hard it been biafra won the war, they would have tried to claimed the glory
These people are something else, highly treacherous and double-faced! Even the GEJ travails that happened just yesterday, these guys are still all-over the place disturbing the peace on how it was afonjas that spearheaded it Yet, everyone saw how Dora Akunyili of blessed memory moved the memo that granted GEJ full powers!!

Thebabenextdoor:


And you're not ashamed to tell whoever wants to listen to you about how yourbas have been the first to clamour for it and yet failed to achieve it. That is failure bro.. Not an achievement, u should be hide in shame that your people have not yet smelt restructuring Nigeria. When your people gingers enough for the actualization of restructuring in the country, then you can come back online and make mouth(because that's the only thing you people are good at) maybe then we can give listening ears to the thrash you wrote up there

And you cowards have been clamouring for biafra since the 60s, killing millions of your people without any tangible progress.

Lerio:
Yourubas are the problem of this country. When Ojukwu was clamoring for restructuring/separation, it was their foolish brother that betrayed him. Now that nobody is talking trash.I bet hard it been biafra won the war, they would have tried to claimed the glory







That's why they would forever be considered as cowards

You still lost the war because of a Yoruba man. Choke on that. Osu pig.

BiafraIShere:

Don't mind the revisionist, that's typical afonja way of reasoning. Highly treacherous people! Everyone knows that Nigeria was operating regional government that gave semi autonomy to the respective regions until the civil war that ended in 1970.

Ironsi destroyed the federal government we had in place in the 60s. Osu revisionist.

Yakasai has achieved his aim... to set off a war between Igbo and Yoruba.

Mid1960s ke?what was dere to restructure in the 60s when tinz were ok and evry one happy with the status quo?Indomie generation forming old.

Bede2u:
b4 the nzeogwu coup...nigeria was a proper federation with devolved powers.

The only thing the country was facing was corruption and minorities suppression...

Wen aguiyi came, he continued the regional system but suspended devolution of power temporarily.

Wen gowon/awolowo came, they destroyed the regions and created the 12 states, while continuing with unitary govt.

Obj/murtala created 19 states and went further to institutionalise unitary govt in 1979 constitution.

There wasnt much agitation in nigeria from 1970 to 1985....people were contented with how things were because of recent past experiences plus oil boom

In 1994 was when the shout for restructuring started. It was spearheaded by alex ekwueme and supported by the west. The only thing that came out of it was creation of 6 more states and the geo political zones.

Restructure is not a yoruba agenda...its a southern agenda.

If restructure includes resource control, the ss will be highest gainers because of oil.
If restructure is only devolution of power, state police and increased oil share to states, then se will be the biggest winners cos they will be able to control security in se which is in the hands of the north now and rebuild most federal infrastructure that was left to decay
If restructure means regionalism, the sw will be the biggest gainers cos they have lagos, have access to sea and are homogenous

"" If restructure includes resource control, the ss will be highest gainers because of oil. ""

I completely agree wit ur entire post, Except for this part. First of all the quantity of oil n gas in the SS have greatly reduced after heavy milking of it by Nigeria for 50 years. SE oil n gas deposits is still over 99.9% untapped n unused. There's a big chance that SE has more oil n gas than SS. Ad for gas alone, Anambra state has more gas deposits than any state in the SS.


Secondly many powerful nations or regions on earth do not have oil and yet they are very wealthy. It has long been proven that the nation's with the highest natural resources aren't necessarily the richest.

Japan has very little natural resources to the extent that they consider Timber as a very rich n important natural resources...I need not say more about Japan.

Do u know that Switzerland has zero crude oil deposits? Yet their Banking sector is richer than Nigeria.

MayorofLagos:


Regional government or not had nothing to do with restructuring. It depends on what regional government you are talking about. The one ibo put us in on Jan66 or the one before that?

Sorry to burst ur bubble.

Till the day Ironsi died, He maintained a regional government in Nigeria. It was gowon that created states n destroyed/ended the regions.

dexentity:
Ibo man with Ibo sense, he is not comfortable with the assertion that they are pushing Yoruba agenda but he is comfortable with the insinuation that they own 70% of Lagos industries. Isokay.

Lagos is no man's land. Dem no de even speak Yoruba in Lagos state.

MayorofLagos:
Yoruba has been on this restructuring talk since Mid-60s. In fact a lot of traction has been gained as a result but when military regime do coups they waste the gains and we had to start afresh. A lot of hope put on Obasanjo as a civilian President to make things happen but he failed. Igbo is a new boy on the block when it comes to restructuring agenda.

Wat exactly were Yorubas talking about in the mid-60s as restructuring? Make it very clear?

MayorofLagos:
Yoruba has been on this restructuring talk since Mid-60s. In fact a lot of traction has been gained as a result but when military regime do coups they waste the gains and we had to start afresh. A lot of hope put on Obasanjo as a civilian President to make things happen but he failed. Igbo is a new boy on the block when it comes to restructuring agenda.

Igbos started the whole restructuring movement. Even in 1966 at Aburi, it was the Eastern region (encapsulating most Igbos) which argued for restructuring, as the other regions of Nigeria including the western region were in the opposite side of the table.

The other regions, including the western region which had a huge Awolowo influence, rejected the Aburi accord. Yorubas are new boys in the whole restructuring thing

In fact what Yorubas do, is that they only start clamouring for restructuring, when they feel marginalised, but immediately they are in government, they jettison the idea. Bola Tinubu was a NADECO member, championing restructuring, when Abacha was in charge. But today, he supports one of the most anti-restructuring presidents, just because of the crumbs he is getting. That is the typical Yoruba attitude towards restructuring.

Igbos support restructuring whether the president is pro or anti-Igbo, and they made the first serious bid at restructuring Nigeria in Aburi, which was eventually scuttled by Northern and western regions