Chinelo Obogo
Two of the socio-political groups at the forefront of the calls for restructuring, Afenifere and the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), have criticised Governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, for labeling proponents of true federalism as insincere and unserious.
Spokesman of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin and the Publicity Secretary of MBF, Isuwa Dogo, lashed out at the governor describing his statement as unfortunate. They maintained that restructuring of Nigeria was inevitable.
Odumakin said restructuring will enable every section of the country control their resources and cause economic growth and stability while Dogo said those who make peaceful restructuring impossible were inviting violence.
“The reason why his party got so much support and even won in Oyo and Ondo State was just because of one agenda and that is because their presidential candidate promised restructuring. The call for restructuring will benefit every section of the country. In Zamfara State, who are the people mining the gold there? Is it the state government? If we have restructuring, it means that the gold in Zamfara will be mined by the state government and will then pay some proceeds to the Federal Government. In the 2014 national conference, we discovered that there were more solid minerals in the north than in the south. If we have restructuring, is it Oyo or Ogun that would go and mine the gold in Zamfara? I think our leaders should try as much as possible to be informed about issues in discuss before abusing people. He is my good friend and brother and I will encourage him to read the report of the 2014 National Conference and he will see why we advocate for every section of the country to be allowed to control their resources, we also advocated that we do a transition period of 10 years of what we are doing now and take five percent of the national budget to go and look for all these resources in every city in Nigeria so that every state will survive,” Odumakin said.
Dogo said: “Anyone that says what was decided during the 2014 national conference is not in order is a political hypocrite. Nobody who knows what is happening in Nigeria today would claim that the issue of restructuring is not in order. Whether we like it or not, there would be restructuring some day and if we do not want a peaceful restructuring, we are inviting a violent one. Those who make a peaceful transition impossible make a violent transition inevitable.
“Those who say peaceful restructuring is not possible, will put Nigeria in a situation whereby violence will take over. These are realities of life. Those against restructuring are political illiterates. Our vision for restructuring is a peaceful rearrangement of the political system that will bring equity, stability and economic growth in every part of the country.”
In an exclusive interview published in Daily Sun, Governor Mattawale criticised those calling for restructuring, describing them as ‘insincere’ and ‘unserious’.