An Ibadan-based development expert and founder,
Guildance Community Development Foundation, Mr Kabiru Adisa, has commended Yoruba
leaders for convening the Yoruba Summit that deliberated on restructuring and
other associated issue, reports ITRealms.
This was contained in a press release issued on
Sunday by the chartered accountant and development expert and made available to
ITRealms.
“I find it gladdening that Yoruba leaders are now
following up their restructuring demand with concrete plans. It is easy to just
shout slogan without providing specifics. With the specifics on restructuring
contained in the Summit communique, I have no doubt that we are now getting
somewhere on the issue and we can now have the much needed debate using this,” Adisa
said.
He however cautioned restructuring agitators
against failing to take the aspirations and feelings of other Nigerians into
account.
“I am a bit worried that some of these agitations
are not creating common ground with regions that may not be disposed to restructuring.
There are regions that may feel that restructuring is not in their best
interest as it threatens to stop the federal allocation that is responsible for
keep their regions running,” he said.
“If you are saying restructuring will take away
that allocation, how exactly do you want the regions to support your proposal
when such support is practically a suicide? Therefore, restructuring agitators
must come up with a compromise that will interest these other important
regions. We could look at reducing federal allocation to states over a period
of years that would allow all regions time to create new revenue sources. With
a compromise like this, the restructuring agitation may be dead on arrival.”
Adisa also emphasized the importance of ensuring
that restructured federation does not suffer the same case of mismanagement of
resources and power that Nigeria is currently suffering.
“I really hope that restructuring does not mean
running around a vicious cycle. If we are not going to import people to run the
restructured Nigeria, then we need to ensure that the new system is better
designed to prevent mismanagement. We currently have out of control governors
in many states; we need to make sure that restructuring does not end up
creating more uncontrollable regional leaders.”
“We also need to create a reliable national
database so that planning will be based on actual data on not fabricated data.
Every Nigerian must be captured in the national identity database which must further
be connected to BVN, international passport, driving license and others. A
restructured Nigeria cannot thrive without this system,” he concluded.
Ayo Midele/GEE
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