TheCable

Femi Adesina, special adviser to the president on media and publicity, says Nigeria is positioned to automatically restructure itself.

Adesina said this on Thursday at the 5th anniversary lecture of News Express in Lagos.

Commenting on the lecture delivered by Abubakar Sani Bello, Niger state governor, who was represented by Jibrin Ndache, his chief press secretary, Adesina said the outcome of the 2015 election is a manifestation of this self-restructuring.

“There is something that has been naturally built into Nigeria that makes it to self-restructure,” Adesina said.

“The 2015 election, you know it got to a point that former President Obasanjo described it as “any other person but Jonathan (APBJ).

“The 2015 election showed us that Nigeria is naturally configured for self-restructuring. You know the current president has run for three times. Automatically, he had 12 million votes waiting for him in the northern part of the country but that was enough.

“And then in 2015, there was a handshake and middle-belt, south-west, they all teamed up. It was the DG of the campaign then, Rotimi Amaechi who said that the political map of Nigeria had been redrawn, and there was no way the incumbent president was winning. And it turned out to be true. That was the kind of restructuring that brought change to Nigeria.

“Nigeria is positioned for automatic self-restructuring. But that is not to say that restructuring debate should not continue.”

The presidential spokesman said there is no definite definition of restructuring, alleging that the opposition is using  restructuring as a tool to destabilise the government.

He said after the fighting the civil war to keep Nigeria united, Buhari would not “sit and watch” some people divide it with their call for restructuring.

He added that the presidency was working towards devolution of power which according to him is another form of restructuring.

“The areas of restructuring are yet to be defined. Ask 100 people what is restructuring and you will get 100 different answers. It shows you that there is no unanimity on what restructuring really is. So how then do you begin to work on restructuring when it has not properly been defined,” Adesina asked.

“No wonder the APC now said OK, we will set up a committee to go round the country and find out what people understand by restructuring and what they what to see in restructuring.

“And then a lot of people say the president does not believe in restructuring. Not exactly. The APC has a manifesto and in inside that manifesto is devolution of power. What some people want is to see the entire thing in the manifesto being done in six months. It doesn’t work that way. The mandate is a four-year mandate.

“People that are agitating for restructuring, I may be wrong but my feeling is that they have turned it into another tool of opposition. It is a covert way of opposing the government of the day.

“If you oppose the government of the day to the extent that you distract it, what should be achieved would then not be achieved at the end of the time. Therefore, people who are sincere about restructuring and who want to see a tweaking of the configuration of our country, there is nothing wrong with it.

“If you read in between the lines, what people that canvass restructuring seeks at the substratum level is the fact that they want to break the country, what they want is dismemberment.

“The governing party believes in restructuring because devolution of power is a form of restructuring. I have heard the president say it many times that we did not fight that civil war to keep Nigeria one and then we will sit down and watch some people want to dismember this country.

“So, a restructuring that will deepen our unity is good but restructuring that will fragment the country is bad and no government, no president who has sworn to uphold the constitution, because the constitution recognises a united and indivisible country will agree to that kind of restructuring that they are trumpeting.”