Yoruba Unity Forum wants Nigerians to insist on restructuring

Chairman of the Yoruba Unity Forum (YUF), an umbrella body of all socio-cultural organisations in the South-West, Rev. Emmanuel Bolanle Gbonigi, has called on Nigerians to urgently eschew their differences, and salvage the country from imminent disaster.

He also said the only legacy the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration owes future generations of the country is to adhere to the popular demand for restructuring.

In a statement yesterday, Rev. Gbonigi noted it would be naivety for Nigeria to do nothing, thinking that the country is on the path to recovery.

According to him, the solution is to accept that it is at the precipice and must be salvaged because citizens have no other country.

He said Nigeria is drifting due to the hydra-headed monsters of Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East, nefarious activities of armed Fulani herdsmen in the Middle-Belt and southern region, cattle rustling in the North, Niger Delta militancy in the South-South, separatists’ agitations in the South-East, spate of kidnappings and armed robberies, among other vices, which are weighing down the progress and development of the country.

He said the corporate existence of the country is seriously under threat, adding that if pragmatic solutions to address the current crises are not sought, “the country will continue to drift in directions similar to the events in the former Soviet Republic. This is why we demand urgent restructuring as the only viable option available to halt uncertainty, which hangs on the country like the sword of Damocles.”

According to him: “While the citizenry mourn the collapse of the price of crude oil, we must take solace in the fact that the decline in price of the commodity has offered us the golden opportunity to restructure the economy and country for enduring greatness, peace, unity, prosperity and progress.

“The assignment should not be performed by the National Assembly; rather, it is an assignment reserved for the stakeholders in the Nigerian project.”

He, therefore, dismissed the notion that the popular call to restructuring is an indirect way of calling for the dissolution of the country, saying: “We are in no way advocating the dissolution of the National Assembly for the purpose of this exercise. Rather, we are demanding that representatives of the various peoples of Nigeria come together without pre-conditions to discuss all issues of statehood, which shall result in restructuring of Nigeria where there shall be equity, justice, religious freedom, peace, security, prosperity and progress for all.”