Ahead of the Nigeria’s 64th anniversary since Independence, an organization, The Rebirth Group has called for immediate restructuring of the country as a means to tackle what they perceive as existential threat.
The group said Nigerians should no longer be afraid of open debates, negotiations, and decisions about the kind of relationship they want with other ethnic groups and how their country should be governed, insisting that time has come to put a stop to living together in mutual suspicion and hatred.
“We must embrace a new political order to navigate the existential threats facing our nation. This calls for deep introspection and institution of regional system became more pertinent in view of what occurred in this country in the early days of this month; August”, the group said in a statement signed by Board of Trustees Chairman, Convener and General Secretary, Amb. Yomi Farounbi, Owolabi Oladejo and DIY Nweze respectively.
The Rebirth Group said the recently held #EndBadGovernance protests marked a critical moment in Nigeria’s history, as citizens chose to express their frustration and demand accountability from those in power.
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It says the peaceful calls for better governance and economic stability reflected deep-seated concerns about pervasive profligacy, corruption, mismanagement, hunger, widespread poverty and the failure to address the welfare of the citizens.
The group said a reformed political structures that births inclusivity, mutual trust, equity will produce stability, unity and peace needed for effective economic reforms, transparency and good governance.
It says, “While we acknowledge that the process of restructuring Nigeria may exacerbate inter-regional and inter-ethnic tensions and conflicts at the initial stage as power dynamics and resource control shift, there is no doubt that it will bring peace and progress ultimately. We are inspired by other heterogeneous countries that have developed suitable structures and systems that have led to peaceful, stable, and prosperous societies.
“It is time we returned to the original regional autonomous structure, establish a country where equity and trust reign. We firmly believe that the present administration has the historic duty to restructure this country.
“We should establish the modalities for reestablishing an autonomous regional structure, similar to what obtained in the 1959 Independence Constitution, but increasing the number of regions as dictated by current realities.
“The Federal Government should first convene intrastate conferences by organizing ethnic nationality discussions within each state. The results of these intra-ethnic discussions should be subjected to a referendum to determine the preferred system of government favored by the people, which state each ethnic nationality preferred to belong to and which region each state want to join.”
