Elder statesman and former minister of finance, Chief Olu Falae has cautioned that Nigeria must be restructured before the next general elections in 2019.
The octogenarian, who was also the presidential candidate of the Alliance for Democracy, AD in the 1999 presidential election believes that for the country to move forward, she must go back to the 1963 constitution.
According to him, what he is clamouring for is that everyone should remain in Nigeria, but it would be a more balanced Nigeria, where the ethnic groups are free to pursue their priorities.
Speaking with Daily Sun, Falae said, “Most people are not interested in an election, if it is going to take place within this un-restructured Nigeria. The election would produce the same injustice and uncertainty. We must restructure before 2019.
“Those who did not want it did not have free education. Chief Awolowo decided to have the Muslim Western Board to take care of the Western people going to Mecca. The other people did not have it. Fine! We decided to have a House of Chiefs and the East did not want to have one and there was no problem. That is what we need. Nobody should be forced to behave like another person. Uniformity does not mean unity. This is because we are different people with different objectives, cultures and values.
“A heterogeneous society cannot operate a unitary government. Look at Britain that is our former colonial power, they are of the same race, colour, religion, language and culture and yet today, you have four governments in Britain. They include the parliament in Scotland, the Assembly in Cardiff, the Parliament in Northern Ireland and the Westminster defacto federal government. So Britain itself has gone into a federation although they are homogeneous. Here we have about 600 different ethnic groups, not the same culture, not the same language and you want to treat us as a homogeneous country and a unitary government. It is not possible. It does not make sense.”
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