TheCable

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar says his stance on the need for restructuring Nigeria was influenced by late former Vice-President Alex Ekwueme.

Abubakar said this on Wednesday, while speaking at the interdenominational commendation service for Ekwueme in Enugu state.

Ekwueme died on November 19 at a London hospital, aged 85.

Abubakar said his personal relationship with Ekwume started in 1994, when both of them were part of a constitutional conference.

Ekwueme, Abubakar said, proposed the idea of restructuring the country along geo-political lines during the conference.

He said though he had initially disagreed with Ekwueme, he later became his “convert and student”.

“Whatever one may say about the late Dr. Alex Ekueme, has been said. But for those of us who had personal interactions with him when he was alive, we would say one or two things quite separate arising from our personal interactions with him,” Abubakar said.

“Between 1994 and 1995, the late Dr. Alex Ekueme and I were part of the constitutional conference that drafted the current constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“So, my association with him started from then. He was a fountain of wisdom and intellect. Even though occassionally we disagreed, for instance, I was one of them who disagreed on the issue of restructuring on geo-political basis, but I came later on to be his convert and his student.

“It is, therefore, too sad, very very sad, that we have lost such a man at this point in time when Nigeria really needs his fountain of wisdom, knowledge and leadership.”

Abubakar is a well-known advocate of restructuring.