Th e Yoruba Council of Elders has explained reasons for recommending that the 1963 constitution and the submissions of the 2014 national conference be adopted as a model for restructuring Nigeria saying it is to ensure that each nationality within the multi-ethnic settings in Nigeria would enjoy equity, fair representation and attain development at its own pace.
Further, the Council, which joined the clamour for restructuring Nigeria in a recent one-day summit attended by prominent sons and daughter and invited some invited Southern leaders, said the template would be the right model that would guarantee each region the needed dynamics to develop along socio-economic and cultural affi nities. Th e Council’s Secretary General, Dr. Kunle Olajide, who was monitored in a Channels Television programme yesterday morning, said the adoption of the 1963 constitution would return Nigeria to federalism that had been successfully operated before the military adventurism truncated the progressive strides made by respected regions. “We are not advocating for the return to 1963 constitution per se, but we are saying that it could be used along with the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference as template in a restructured Nigeria.
“Th e 1999 Nigerian Constitution puts the 36 states and the FCT in a consumption mood. It does not engineer growth and infrastructural development, but promotes indulgence at the expense of creativity,” he said stressing that the constitution makes states lazy and always going cap in hand to Abuja for money from the federation account. “Th e template will evolve a 24th century Nigerian that will meet global standard and expectation. We proposed 6 regions but are not opposed to 9 or 12 regions depending on what the people of the respect regions decide after holding a referendum. “We are not adverse to 9 or 12 regions whatever each region decides they could choose to create development centres as they may desire.
All the Yoruba Council of Elders want is to halt the drift to destruction. Th e present constitution is like a vehicle about to knock engine and unless we halt the drift it will lead us nowhere,” he said. According to him, using the template in a restructured Nigeria would galvanised its region’s development dynamics and ensure that regionalism would eliminate mutual suspicion, ginger development, healthy competition as was the case in the 1960s and promote national unity. Dr Olajide said the Nigeria’s present political structure is a product that is based on a fl awed constitution, noting that Nigeria has been experimenting with a fake construction that does not fully represent the feelings, yearnings, aspirations and dynamics of the respective regions.
