THE Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has said that for restructuring to be actualised, there is need to first organise a Sovereign National Conference where Nigeria must be renegotiated.
According to the CUPP, anyone who is afraid of a SNC is not ready for Nigeria’s peace and development.
Spokesperson of CUPP, Comrade Mark Adebayo, stated this while speaking with the Nigerian Tribune on the consistent clamour for restructuring by Nigerians against the backdrop of ongoing constitutional amendment process initiated by the National Assembly.
“If restructuring is to be actualised, we need to first organise a Sovereign National Conference, where Nigeria must be renegotiated.
“Anyone who is afraid of a Sovereign National Conference is not ready for Nigeria’s peace and development,” he said.
This was just as the CUPP spokesperson noted that the major factors responsible for the persistent clamour for restructuring were bad leadership and perceived injustices being meted out to some parts of the country, the trend he claimed was more pronounced during the immediate past regime of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Adebayo alleged that Buhari made his government looked like a strictly northern affair to the detriment of the southern part of the country.
He claimed that about 90 percent of Buhari’s appointees were northerners as he ignored public criticisms and displeasures that emanated from such approach to governance.
“The main factors responsible for the persistent clamour for restructuring Nigeria are bad leadership and perceived injustices being meted out to some parts of the country.
“This was more pronounced during the presidency of General Muhammadu Buhari, who decided to make his government look like a strictly northern affair to the detriment of the South.
“We can safely say that about 90% of Buhari’s appointees were northerners and the man couldn’t care less about the public criticisms and displeasures that emanated from that,” the CUPP chieftain said.
Adebayo posited that the agitation for restructuring was importantly fueled by Buhari’s seeming lack of will to tackle the menace posed by herders who were accused of activities and forceful occupation of lands that did not belong to them in the southern and north-central parts of the country.
, saying that the former leader’s body and vocal languages restrained security agencies from curbing the criminal elements among herders, who were mostly the former president’s Fulani stock.
He said while the criminal elements among the herders were ceasing lands and communities of other people, the immediate past administration allegedly tacitly defended them on ground that “it was because the people who were being killed had encroached on the grazing routes reserved for cattle thereby justifying the violence and reckless bloodshed being perpetrated by those killer herders.
“Therefore, a lot of people in the South were actually clamoring for the breakup of the country. But moderate elements were agitating for restructuring by which the different geopolitical zones would have total control over their natural resources, education, security, etc, while we have a weaker center.
“By this, the belief is that each zone can protect its people and territory effectively without any fear of political retribution,” he said.
“The situation has not changed much under the current administration as such group of herders have murdered close to 100 people in Benue State alone in the last 72 hours. It’s lesser in the South-West now due to change of government and the establishment of Amotekun,” he added.
CUPP spokesperson, however, noted sadly that the security challenge still remained because these herders believe that they were above the law, while the government, according to him, is yet to take decisive actions against them.
He warned that agitation for restructuring caused by marginalisation occasioned fundamentally by bad governance or leadership and political injustice won’t go away until a situation is reached “where either the country is comprehensively restructured or Nigeria gets the leadership that embarks on rapid national development without bias towards ethnicity or religion.
“However, it’s still a challenge because these herders believe that they are above the law and the government is yet to take decisive actions against them.
“Fundamentally, bad governance or bad leadership and political injustice which is referred to as marginalization are the causes of this agitation for restructuring and it won’t go away until we succeed in getting a situation where either the country is comprehensively restructured or Nigeria gets the leadership that embarks on rapid national development without bias towards ethnicity or religion,” Adebayo said.
