The former President had recently called for the integration
of Nigeria, stressing that restructuring the country is needless.
But, Clark condemned Obasanjo’s stance on restructuring
saying the former President knows the truth and should say it.
Clark lashed out at the former President, saying he always
wants to impose “his will and authority on Nigeria.”
He said contrary to Obasanjo’s remark, there is urgent need
to restructure Nigeria.
According to Clark, “If he (Obasanjo) does not believe in
restructuring, what were the national conference or political conference and
national reform conference, which we all attended for?
“I was the leader of the Southern delegation even though we
walked out, what was if for, was it only for his third term or concern for
restructuring of Nigeria? That is a question Obasanjo should be asked to
answer.
“The truth is that he (Obasanjo) is a leader who wants to
impose his will and authority on Nigeria.
“There is need for restructuring, there is need to go back
to the kind of government we had before and after independence until the
soldiers struck.
“What we are saying is that we want the former one where
there was devolution of power, where every region had its own constitution even
the Midwest region was created based on the demand for restructuring. Then,
every region was independent in whatever they did. No one held the other down,
which was why western Nigeria government did things that other government did
not do and others were not envious of it because everybody had his own
government.
“At present, Nigeria is running a unitary government, a
situation where every state first goes to the Federal Government for money.
That is not federalism. So Obasanjo is not saaying the truth, he knows what to
say, but he is not saying it. He is saying there is nothing wrong with the
structure of the country, which is not true.
“We want restructuring to correct the defects in the current
structure of the country. For instance, Kano has 47 local governments but
contributes nothing to the revenue of the country, while Bayelsa, which
contributes a lot has only eight local governments.
“I think these are anomalies that should be corrected.
“There should be devolution of powers to the states if the
states are going to be the federating units. Obasanjo is wrong to say that
there is nothing wrong with the structure of the country, everything is wrong
with the structure of the country.
“We believe that the minorities in Nigeria, especially in
the north, should have a sense of belonging by creating states for them. Like
the Southern Kaduna, the people need a state with headquarters in Kafanchan,
which is why we need restructuring.
“We also believe that in every state, governorship should
rotate from one senatorial zone to the other to give every section of the state
a sense of oneness and participation so that in a state like Kogi, where only
the Igalas until recently or Benue, where only Tivs have been producing
governors can be checked.
“These were part of the things we discussed at the 2014
national conference, that governorship should be zoned, it is part of
restructuring and the conference discussed everything from Obasanjo’s 2005
report, Abacha’s conference, Babaginda’s conference, all the reports were
brought before us and the conference deliberated on them.”
By Seun Opejobi
