Restructuring is nothing but politics – Unongo
Aformer minister of steel, Chief Paul Unongo, in this interview added his voice to the current heated debate about restructuring of Nigeria.
What exactly is your understanding of this restructuring of Nigeria that has dominated the communication space in the past few weeks?
I’m not one of the people talking about restructuring. The first question I have always asked is what those who talk about restructuring mean, but from what I have gathered from the press, it means secession. A young man by the name Kanu wants to secede and resurrect Biafra and the Nigerian press, international press, as well as other people are giving him so much attention as if he is doing something new. Some people also said it is all about fiscal federalism so that they can control resources in their own states. Yet others want the presidential system of government to be abandoned so that we can go back to regionalism just like parliamentary system of government when the premiers such as the late Obafemi Awolowo, Nmandi Azikwe and Ahmadu Bello held sway. There are others who don’t even like the old regional system but want autonomous regional powers for the six geopolitical zones.
Restructuring, to me, means nothing. It’s just politics to me. Nigerians when they want to talk, they just talk and talk. We have been restructuring, we had a three regional government and we have had a parliamentary system. When the military intervened, they pretended that the system didn’t work because they wanted to change governance. The concentration was to end northern hegemony. The first coup had eliminated northern dominance from power, politics and governance as there were selective killings of northern leadership. The military hierarchy became dominated by the Igbo while the rank and file was mainly of northern extraction. There was a feeling that it was not a revolution but a deliberate planned killings and elimination of leadership from a particular part of the country so as to impose another section of the country. So, by July 1966, there was a replay and the northerners made a comeback. So, when people are talking about restructuring, I hope that they understand history and the sort of thing they are referring to. So, what do you mean by restructuring? Do we need reforms? Yes. Are reforms being made? Yes. Do we need all the noises being made? No. Do we need all the people of Nigeria to be gathered and we truncate constitutionalism and ask the people to rewrite the constitution? I have never seen a country that has written so many constitutions as Nigeria. I would have sympathy for argument that thinks that the constitution handed to Nigerians by the military through a fiat does not truly represent what they want. If the people also does not want the leadership in place now, then the way forward would be for the country’s president to organise a sovereign national conference.