Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC) worldwide has said that a statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari describing Nigerians clamouring for restructuring as “loose and lazy” was in bad faith.
The IYC, in a statement made available to newsmen on Wednesday, also reiterated the stand of the Niger Delta region on the restructuring of the federation.
Barrister Oweilaemi Pereotubo, National President, Ijaw Youth Congress, Worldwide, in the statement, said that President Buhari’s assertion that the demand for restructuring had no defined limit was also wrong.
Pereotubo maintained that restructuring or true fiscal federalism entailed devolution of powers to the component states.
According to him, restructuring, “simply means transferring some of the items in the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list in the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
He stressed that what Nigerians had been asking for “is to allow the states to harness and control the resources in their domains.
“We need to evolve from this unitary system to a truly federal system of government. The diversity of our socio-cultural backgrounds is not suitable for quasi-federal system which the country is currently practicing.”
Pereotubo maintained that President Buhari needed no tutor or a historian to be reminded that in the 60s before the civil war, the regions had higher responsibilities because derivation was 50/ 50 for the centre and the regions.
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He stressed that the present system had rendered the states penniless, “thereby begging for alms from the centre. We need to run a competitive government where the states should be contributing to the national purse.”
He said the present system where the state governors had been mere toothless bulldogs to the security of their states, had been compounding the security threats in the country.
He asked: “Has Mr. President forgotten so soon how some state governors under this administration resigned their positions as the Chief Security Officers of their respective states because they have no control of the security agencies in the country?”
Pereotubo stated that the clamour for state police was part of the demands for restructuring, stressing that Nigeria would be better structured and united through the practice of true federalism, which he added, would guarantee job creation and economic stability.
He stated: “IYC takes an exception to President Buhari’s disparaging comment on Nigerians. Those clamouring for restructuring are not lazy. The authors of restructuring only mean well for the country.
“The continuous survival of this country as a corporate entity lies on its structural reformation. Nigeria, as it is presently composed, can no longer sustain our unity in diversity. We cannot live in a country where some people are seen as second fiddle human beings.
“If President Buhari wants to know the true definition of restructuring, then he should read the report of the 2014 national dialogue. That report has substantially addressed the yearnings of Nigerians.
“For us in the Niger Delta, we will never relent in pursuing for restructuring because that is what will make us to have sense of participation in the Nigerian project.”
