Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that he does not subscribe to viewpoints which call for the restructuring of Nigeria as a geopolitical entity.
The elder statesman in an interview with Channels television, said the only restructuring Nigerians need is that of the mind, in addition to better leadership.
He stated, “I have spoken to six different people who talk about restructuring and the six of them gave me different points of view. The other day, some people came to me and what they were talking about didn’t make sense.
“So, what are we talking about? We have a country that God has endowed; the management of that endowment is what we have to work on. All hands must be on deck. Some of the people clamouring for restructuring are nostalgic about the country’s independence; that’s their restructuring and some of them are nostalgic about post-independence. Some of them are nostalgic about their tribes, and that’s their restructuring. I cannot be part of that.”
“My own restructuring is what I have said: we have to restructure our mentality. We have to restructure our minds. We have to restructure our understanding of Nigeria. What country do we want? And if we decide on what kind of country we want, how do we get that country? We need to get every Nigerian to have the feeling that they have a stake in the country?”
Reacting to Obasanjo’s comments, spokesman of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, said Nigeria’s structure did not even allow the former leader tar the road to his farm.
He said, “We are saying the present condition of Nigeria is not conducive for development or growth. Obasanjo was president of Nigeria for eight years; yet he didn’t even renovate the road that led to his farm. It is because the structure is anti-development. Meanwhile, Awolowo was premier of the Western region for seven years, and till date, we are still talking about what he achieved under the regional structure.”