Nigeria is ripe for redesign, says cleric

The Chairman, Christian Council of Nigeria (CCN), South-South Zone, His Grace, the Most Rev’d Tunde Adeleye, says problem of Nigeria could only be solved by restructuring.

Addressing a press conference in Calabar on Monday, Adeleye, who is the Archbishop Ecclesiastical Province of Niger Delta (Anglican Commission), said Nigeria is ripe for restructuring, describing the present structure as being obsolete and will not do Nigeria any good.

Speaking further, he said the generations of Nigerian youths are being wasted with countless graduates roaming the street for jobs.

“This is because of the apparent selfishness of our leaders who do not have the future of the young ones in their minds. Consequently, many of these graduates have entered into various crimes including armed robbery, occultism and kidnapping.

“Unemployment of youths, in a nation as big as Nigeria, is like sitting on a keg of gunpowder, one day it will explode, it is a question of time,” he said

“It will involve honest dialogue. There is now injustice, marginalisation, resulting in a failing state. We, therefore, need to redesign Nigeria.

“Government in Nigeria is currently too centralised. This has ridiculed our so-called “Federal” system. We require decentralisation of powers. Many of the items currently on the exclusive list in the constitution should either be shared with the State Government or handed over to the State Government completely. The restructuring should be now,” the Archbishop said.

He said the present unitary system of government camouflaged and styled Federal System is, simply put, falsehood, insisting that each state should be allowed to manage their resources and only pay royalty to the Federal Government.

“The present situation in which all the resources go to the centre and the states go the centre with cap in their hands to beg for money cannot and should not be called a Federal State.

“The centre is too powerful. The States and the Local Government Areas are marginalized. Unless and until we restructure, the suffering will continue. So, it is high time we allowed states to manage their resources and only pay royalty to federal government,” Adeleye stated.