A former Minister of Health, and political adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Prof. A.B.C Nwosu, has again, joined numerous voices in the country calling for the restructuring of the political system.
The professor, had earlier expressed surprise that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has rejected calls from various quarters for the nation’s restructuring.
He insisted that Nigeria would no longer exist as a nation if it was not restructured in a way that would weaken the power of the Federal Government.
Nwosu pointed out that the present political arrangement where there was too much pressure and over-concentration of power at the federal level was not the dream of the founding fathers of Nigeria.
The ex-minister spoke on Saturday, during the public presentation of a book entitled, “Dan-Nzelu: The biography of one of Nigeria’s foremost oil engineers,” which was in commemoration of the 10 years anniversary of the death of former Executive Director of Pipeline Products Marketing Company, Dan Nzelu.
According to him, “This country will either live if restructured or die, if it is not restructured. Let me repeat it, this country will die if it doesn’t restructure; this country will live if it restructures.
“And restructuring to me is not regionalization. We can’t go on the way we are going on.
“If there is a problem in the North-East, it is the Federal Government, in the Niger Delta, it is the Federal Government, in Anambra State, it is the Federal Government. That is not the country our founding fathers envisaged.
“For those who don’t know, I was in secondary school, class 4, in 1960 when Nigeria gained independence. It wasn’t the vision of the premiers then. Even in church, the bishop is not in charge of determining for the parish when weddings take place.
“I am a Catholic, but Cardinal John Onaiyekan (Catholic Archbishop of Abuja) doesn’t determine Holy Trinity here; let alone the one in Gwagwalada, not to talk of my town, Nnewi.
“Why does the Federal Government want to be in charge of everything? The Federal Government will collect the money for everything, collect the powers for everything and that is why we have wastage.
“You have a permanent secretary and he has so many billions of dollars and millions of naira.
“It is not right, if you devolve this money or responsibilities from the centre to the government nearer to the people, they will know where the pothole is and patch it up.”
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