First Republic
politician and an Awoist, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, has told southern and Christian
leaders, criticizing the United States Secretary of State, John Kerry’s recent
visit to Nigeria as discriminatory, to calm down, claiming that the U.S
diplomat visited Nigeria with a specific message for Northern leaders.
 |
| Chief Ayo Adebanjo |
Recall that
during the two-day trip, Kerry had after a meeting with President Muhammadu
Buhari, visited the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III, and also met with 10
northern governors.
Shortly after,
the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN,
stated that the visit was discriminatory, personal and divisive, adding that it
was aimed at encouraging the ongoing persecution of Christians in the country
in favour of northern Nigeria and Muslims.
The CAN
President, Rev. Dr Olasupo Ayokunle, who stated this in a statement by his
aide: Pastor Adebayo Oladeji, condemned Kerry’s action in strong terms for lack
of respect to the heterogeneous nature of Nigeria.
But the
octogenarian, who has been a strong voice for the restructuring of Nigeria into
fiscal federalism, said in an interview with Vanguard, that Secretary Kerry
came to deliver a bombshell to Northern leaders, who are considered to be
against restructuring the country because the current structure favours them.
He stated that
Kerry told Buhari and northern leaders that Nigeria may face serious problems
without restructuring and that the United States and other Western powers would
not come to the aid of Nigeria, if it implodes on account of the faulty
structure.
According to
Adebanjo, “You cannot bastardise restructuring. We want a new constitution, not
amendment. Our constitution needs a surgical operation. That was what we did at
the 2014 National Confab. What we agreed there is compatible with federalism.
“What we are
practising in Nigeria as federalism, where is it practised in other parts of
the world? Where is it practised in America, Europe or Australia? It is only in
Nigeria that we have this kind of federalism. That is why John Kerry warned
northern leaders that they should ensure restructuring of the country and that
if they refused they will not be able to handle the consequences.
“That is why
they are talking about empowering the local governments but empowering local
governments is not the solution to our problems. We need regional autonomy so
that each zone will develop at its own pace.”
In reaction to
the concerns raised by CAN over Kerry’s visit, the United States Mission in
Nigeria explained that the Secretary did not sideline Christians in the meeting
with religious leaders in Sokoto, claiming that the most senior official
interacted with both Muslims and Christians during the engagement in Sokoto.
A spokesman at
the US Mission in Nigeria, Larry Socha said: “In Sokoto, Secretary Kerry
met with both Christian and Muslim leaders to discuss religious tolerance and
ways to counter violent extremism affecting all Nigerians.”
Reiterating his
call for restructuring along regional basis as was witnessed in the First
Republic before the military coup of 1966, Adebanjo stated that palliative
measures like giving the states and local governments more powers will make
little or no impact in addressing the country’s burning problems.
According to
him, “My stand is very clear: No restructuring, no Nigeria. We all know what
restructuring is and cannot pretend about the kind of restructuring we need in
Nigeria. We all know the kind of country our founding fathers left for us. It
was the military that de-structured Nigeria after the coup of 1966.
“The constitution
that we are using now is a military constitution. It is not the constitution
that our forefathers got for us. When the coup happened in 1966, the military
changed everything…The problem we are having now is because of non compliance
to the federal principle of the country.
“The
beneficiary of the in-balance of this constitution are the northerners. How the
north have more local government areas than the South? How are the local
governments in Kano and Jigawa more than those in Lagos? The military at that
time just allocated states and local governments to themselves. There was
really no criteria with which they arrived at those local governments. They now
went further by allocating funds on the basis of the number of local
governments.
“We want equitable
distribution. We don’t want any region to be more favoured than the other.
Every region must have autonomy to rule itself and we all combine at the centre
for what joins us together. If we had no federal system, Awolowo could not have
done what he did in the Western Region.”
·
Source: Daily Post
No comments:
Post a Comment