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Restructuring: The Future Of Every Nation Is Negotiable – Ofeimun

Author, poet and activist, Mr Odia Ofeimun, has blamed the call for restructuring by some group leaders on absence of structured governance and lack of adequate … Continue reading Restructuring: The Future Of Every Nation Is Negotiable – Ofeimun


Author, poet and activist, Mr Odia Ofeimun, has blamed the call for restructuring by some group leaders on absence of structured governance and lack of adequate effort to plan and negotiate the future of the nation.

Ofeimun, who is also the former private secretary to the former nationalist, Late Obafemi Awolowo, speaking on Sunday, at the Programme, Politics Today on Channels Television said, it is possible to maintain unity in Nigeria, if proper effort is put in place by leaders of the nation.

“It is possible to control the Nigerian situation. A country, without the structure to take proper decisions cannot plan. When they can’t plan, it means the daily run of events push them like the wind blowing paper. It is as if that kind of situation puts all of us in auto-pilot. Things are happening, but you cannot specifically pinpoint who is in control.”

Against the statement by President Muhammadu Buhari during his speech after return from medical vacation, where he noted that Nigeria’s unity is settled and not negotiable, Ofeimun said every country is a daily negotiation and that there is no particular period in the life of a country which is not negotiable.

“Nigeria is an eminently savable country that nobody has made a proper effort to save. We have refused to concentrate on production, that is at the heart of the matter, almost everybody is interested on how to share what has not been produced. Every country in the world is a daily negotiation. There is no particular period in the life of a country which is not a negotiation. Every nation therefore is negotiable.”

Ofeimun expressed believe that Nigeria is at a current state when the call for restructuring is coming from some group leaders because there is no proper planning put in place to prevent breakaway.

He blamed this on Presidents from major political parties, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC), that have ruled the country in recent years on ruling the nation without serious planning.

“We elect governments without a programme of action. The strategies for ensuring that a policy is implemented are never made known to either members of the political parties or to the general populace.

“In my view, under the APC, we have a different kind of situation where it is the President that has abandoned his party. In both cases (PDP and APC) we had Presidents governing without serious political parties.”

Going down the history lane of how Nigeria was founded by the British. He said many Nigerians believed that this arrangement is lopsided hence the displeasure by some regions and the call for breakaway.

“Whenever you asked, from 1914 till present, what kind of a country you have. You will hear people saying it is a lopsided arrangement. That lopsided arrangement turns out not to have helped the North, which it was supposed to have favoured and it has not properly helped other parts of the country.

“If you have a lopsided system created by a foreign colonizer. We on our own, ought to sit down and plan how not to let our country serve a foreign system.”

Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has earlier called on Nigerians to channel their energy and resources towards making the nation a great country as destined by God. He said we must focus our time, our energies, our resources, on being that great nation that God has called us to be.