Legal luminary and elder statesman, Aare Afe Babalola, has called on the Federal Government to restructure Nigeria before the next election.
The restructuring, according to Babalola, is important because of the agitation in the country.
Speaking with Punch, the scholar said, “People are agitating for the restructuring of this country. I have been an unrepentant supporter and crusader for restructuring of the country because what we have is called federal government but it is indeed a unitary government where states only go for begging of money at the end of every month and no development of any kind is taking place.
“Left to me and referring to 2014 National Conference where restructuring was suggested, I will suggest a Sovereign National Conference. Whatever the result is turned over to a national referendum and the outcome of the national referendum shall be the people’s constitution without any resort to any assembly for amendment because as long as we still have this national assembly there, they can never restructure this country in a way that will be detrimental to the money they are earning.
“The 2014 conference says they should not earn salaries anymore they should be earning allowances. What have they done to it? Of course it will not be in their own interest to wipe off salary for allowances, so, they ignored it.
“The proper thing for us to do is let the Federal Government set in motion the necessary machinery for the restructuring of this country and the result must be out before the next election. In a way, I’m saying there should be no election until we have a new constitution under the Sovereign National Conference.
“There is urgent need by Buhari government because of the agitation in the country including former military president Ibrahim Babangida, who was one of the men who imposed this constitution on us, who in his wisdom has now changed gear and say let us restructure the country.
“Recently I appealed to him to call on other military rulers like former president Olusegun Obasanjo, Abubakar Abdul-Salam, Yakubu Gowon and others to join the crusade for restructuring.”
