By Henry Uche
As Nigeria mark its 61st Political independence, elder statesman, Pa Ayo Opadokun, has queried the essence of celebration when the masses are languishing in abject poverty due to maladministration and mismanagement of resources across levels of government.
In a monitored interview today, the elder statesman maintained that the foundation upon which Nigeria was built by Britain was faulty and was made worse by the 1999 constitution which he described as fraudulent.
According to him, Nigeria has no cause to celebrate because the economic indices and realities leaves no one happy except those who are feasting under the debilitating status quo and those who derived Joy from the pains of others.
He added that for Nigeria to move forward, it must return to true federal constitutional governance. “First, there is nothing exciting about the president’s speech. He only spoke about things that interest him, while Nigerians are suffocating.
“Nigeria was not created by God. The British deliberately skewed the terrible setting we see as Nigeria. Britain just replicated in Nigeria what they did in United kingdom. Before they left, they gave over 60 peecent of land mass to a particular section of the country. They also designated a certain group of people through whom they still rule.
“For the 1999 constitution, citizens were never allowed to decide whether they wanted to be one Nigeria or not. The constitution says ‘We the People…’ but we know that Nigerians never came together nor had any agreement.
The former national secretary of National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) maintained that there was a negotiated Nigeria but it was abandoned by the military, stressing that there was a legitimate constitution before Nigeria was granted Independence in 1960.
“The 1999 constitution remains a forgery. We need to return to true Federalism. We have been lying to International communities that we practice Federalism while we are not and they know we are not. Now the ethnic nationalities must come together to renegotiate Nigeria,”
He added that Nigeria may remains underdeveloped if Policies of the federal government remains lopsided. “How can the president close Benin boarder and open the Niger boarder and the likes? If I’m to advise Buhari, I wish he would listen to reasonable voices of Nigeria.
“But whether he accept it it not, the current situation is not working nor sustainable, we are practicing unitary system of government. Nigeria has a slewed and lopsided national structure. The evidence is there, they control the military to the point that they can annul an election won by another person in other regions and nobody will do anything about it.
“Unfortunately any effort to fix the anomalies of Nigeria is tagged a hate speech. A particular section would tell you that they would detect who governs Nigeria any time any day because they claim the country belong to them. It’s time for Nigeria to rise and take their destiny into their hands. It’s time to be blunt. Britain and their imperialists used their gun power and forced us to cohabit and today we are suffocating.
“In any decent society leaders must accept the reality. What happened in Sunday Igboho house cannot happen in a sane society. Self determination has become the anthem of this millennium. Whether this government likes it or not, no matter how you oppress agitators, it will continue because people must naturally resist oppression and afflictions,” he added.