The Obi of Onitsha and the Chairman of Anambra State Council of Traditional Rulers, Igwe Alfred Achebe, wants the restructuring of the country, without which he said Nigeria would remain directionless and ineffectual state.
The monarch maintained that said that the prevailing situations and challenges across Nigeria have necessitated a review of the governance structure of the country.
Achebe spoke in a lecture in Awka Monday as part of activities marking the 25th anniversary of the creation of Anambra State.
Achebe in the lecture entitled, “Think Nigeria, invest in Anambra,” said that “ the present political arrangement in Nigeria had proved to be unworkable.”
The monarch said that with the growing support for the restructuring of the country among Nigerians, it was important that country restructures to give everybody a sense of belonging.
According to him, on June 1, 2016, former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubarkar said that restructuring would make governance less centralized, less suffocating and less dictatorial.
“For instance, former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubarkar, said the restructuring would make governance less centralised, less suffocating, and less dictatorial,” he said.
He also recalled that the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Alhaji Dahiru Musdafar, had also advocated that the 2015 presidential election further divided the country along ethnic, religious, regional and partisan lines, as he argued that after the election, Nigerians seemed as divided as ever.
Similarly, Igwe Achebe added that many ethnic groups, including those in the Niger Delta, as well as the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, were demanding cessation over the existing imbalances in the country.
“The youths in the South East feel that they have been constitutionally marginalized compared to their counterparts in other regions. They feel that the present configuration perpetually puts them at great disadvantage, hence their demand to opt out of Nigeria “MEND in the Niger Delta also argues that the resources from their area are controlled by a very strong federal government in Abuja, while their area which produces the resources is left with virtually nothing,” he said.
Achebe also recalled that the South West leaders sometime ago, approved a memorandum, saying that there is need for Nigeria to be restructured in a way that no ethnic group should feel marginalised.
For the monarch, there is the urgent need for Ndigbo to address their readiness to survive under any arrangement in Nigeria by investing at home.
He said that the present practice in which they concentrate their investments in other parts of the country to the detriment of their area should be truncated.
“We are individually successful, but collectively, we are very much divided. Other ethnic nationalities that share Nigeria with us are seriously maximizing their collective interests,” he said.
He urged Ndigbo not to fold their hands until the restructuring materialized, but that they should try their best under the present circumstances to maximize their efforts to benefit their area.
Former vice president, Dr. Alex Ekwueme was among those who graced the well-attended anniversary event.
