A Former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Alexander Ogomudia (rtd), has expressed fear over some recent developments in the country, which according to him are indications that Nigeria is overdue for restructuring.
Ogomudia, who lamented the high level of insecurity in the country, said: “A situation where a former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshall Alex Badeh, was killed in the streets like an urchin and nothing happened is a sign that the nation is not moving in the right direction”.
The former military chief who delivered the keynote address at the Good Governance Lecture organised by the Catholic Church of Warri’s Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC), chaired by Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, warned that the continued suppression of the agitations for the restructuring of the country could lead to a violent break up of the nation.
He urged those opposed to restructuring to borrow a leaf from the break up of Yugoslavia and Sudan, saying that even in Spain, the Catalonians wanted to break away and in Britain, Scotland sought autonomy.
He said restructuring was a global trend which every right-thinking government should embrace for national integration and development, especially in a country like Nigeria with the practice of what he described as “a fake federal system.”
Ogomudia also criticised the death penalty for hate speech offenders. He created a mild drama in the hall when he paused to ask anyone who could define hate speech to come forward. And when no one came out, Ogomudia said “they want to impose the death penalty for something that no one can truly define? Where is this country headed?”
He described the type of politics practised in Nigeria as toxic and detrimental to national development, saying “we have a fractured politics and everyone is doing things that will hurt the country.”
According to him, “Nigeria needs true federalism to advance like other nations. Nigeria is the only country where states share money coming from only one source monthly.”
The former CDS, who argued that Nigeria was overdue for change, said that restructuring the country would guarantee ethnic harmony, accountability, freedom of speech, independence of the judiciary and a fair electoral process.
Credit: The Guardian
