The lawmaker representing Okitipupa/Irele Federal Constituency of Ondo State in National Assembly, Mike Omogbehin, has attributed the clamour for restructuring coming from various quarters in the country to the quest for resource control.
According to him, there is a current deviation from the initial structure put in place by founders of the country, which ensured the prosperity and development of the people.
Omogbehin added that under the present structure of the country, the resources of the states had now been taken over by the Federal Government and superintended over by the federating units, as if the country was operating a unitary system.
He told the Punch: “the word, ‘re,’ in the expression ‘restructuring, is very important. That presupposes that there is a structure on the ground before we began to say that the present structure is not favourable.
“So, we have to restructure it. We have to ask ourselves, what was or what is that structure? Is the structure pre-independence or post-independence? Prior to the current democratic dispensation that we are in, the country used to have three regions.
“We had the North, East and West. Unfortunately, the military men came and disbanded the regions and divided them into several states. This is what brought about the unitary system and the economic woes we are experiencing today.
“The resources of the states have now been taken over by the Federal Government. The country government at the centre are superintending over the federating units as if we are operating a unitary system.
“The result is what we are battling with across the country: agitations by some regions to control their resources. Agitations set in, especially with the discovery of crude oil, while agriculture was abandoned. There is no money from groundnuts; there is no money from cocoa again. Everybody now rushes to benefit from the largesse of crude oil.
“So, the agitation began to rise from the owners of the oil. What was the structure? The structure that we had (initially) was simple federalism. It should not be the Federal Government that should be giving states handouts.
“It is the states that should be giving the Federal Governments handouts. It is an aberration for the government at the centre to be giving state governments – under a federal system – what belongs to them.
“Again, the lack of proper restructuring of this country has denied Nigerians ownership of the country. I mean, as of today, Nigerians do not claim to own the country. They only claim to own their communities or regions because they believe the resources they own have been taken over by a few people. But if we restructure, the country’s development will be fast. To me, the call for the restructuring of the country is a good one.”
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