Dickson Calls for All-Parties C’ttee on Restructuring
The Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Henry Seriake Dickson, has called on the federal government to set up an All- Parties Committee to formulate the template to streamline issues and views around the notion of restructuring Nigeria.
The governor’s call came a few days after the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) resolved to set up an internal committee of the party to work out modalities for restructuring of the country.
While commending APC for supporting restructuring, Dickson believes that rather than making it an exclusive APC affair, membership of the restructuring committee should be drawn from all the political parties, civil societies and the academia to deal decisively with the matter, stressing that only an expanded committee would give a sense of belonging to all and sundry.
A statement signed by the governor’s Special Adviser on Media Relations, Francis Agbo, yesterday in Yenagoa, noted that Dickson has promised to mobilise support for restructuring if the APC goes about it with sincerity of purpose.
The governor however, advised those who misconstrue restructuring to mean secession to have a re-think as ‘‘Nigeria’s unity and indivisibility is desirable but should be negotiated for the good of all.’’
He, however, said for restructuring to comprehensively address the questions of Nigeria’s unity, theAPC-led federal government must include Resource Control, Devolution of Power to the federating unitsandtruefederalisminthetemplate of restructuring.
He said restructuring along the lines of resource control and true federalism will build confidence and cohesion across the country and place Nigeria on the path of justice and fairness.
The statement read in parts: ‘‘For me, as Governor of Bayelsa State, any restructuring that doesn’t include resource control will not make much sense to my people because for us in the Niger Delta,restructuringNigeriastarts with resource control.
“Myunderstanding of Nigeria is that we all want to remain in one Nigeria but it must be a Nigeria of our dream foundedon justice, equity and fairness; a Nigeria where all the people that make up the country are happy and proud to call their country and not a country where any section or race is perceived to be superior or inferior to the other, a Nigeria where we are our brothers keepers!