A former National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, has called for partial restructuring to douse rising discontent and distrust among different sections of the country.
He said the discontent and distrust, if allowed to persist, would make reconciliation and consensus building very difficult indeed, if not impossible.
He noted that the perceptions of exclusion, marginalization and exploitation are so deep-seated that they nurture and deepen divisions.
The leading academic spoke at a public lecture of the Achievers University, Owo, Ondo State on Wednesday.
Jega,however, noted that as desirable as cogent the issue is, certain fundamental challenges needed to be addressed to make the idea workable.
He said a broadly participatory, inclusive and responsive process would lend greater legitimacy to the end product of any restructuring and constitutional amendment processes.
“In spite of the challenges, the prospects of restructuring are not as hopeless as some would assume them to be.
“Nigeria needs stability and increased legitimacy for elected officials in governance; needs good governance, better nurtured and deepened democratic development; and needs economic growth and socio-economic development.
“For all these, better management of ethnoreligious diversity on the basis of rule of law, justice, equity and equality of opportunity, is a necessary precondition.
“That is what a federal arrangement is meant to ensure, but it is not, if truth is to be told, what the current federal structure and practice of federalism in Nigeria provide.
“Rather, it ensures an asymmetrical and unequal distribution of power and allocation of resources between the national government and the subnational units, the states.
“Therefore, some form of restructuring in the short-term, before the next general elections in 2023 to reverse the trend and reposition Nigeria as a viable and effective federation, is necessary.
“One can say without any fear of contradiction that there is at least an elite consensus on the fact that the current Nigerian federal arrangement isn’t optimally working; that indeed it is dysfunctional and needs improvement.
“Where consensus seems lacking is on the nature and extent of restructuring to be undertaken before the next general elections in 2023.
“If only our elected leaders would try harder, with courage and strong political will, consensus can and should emerge on the thorny issues about the nature and extent of restructuring.”
