FOREMOST legal practitioner, Chief Afe Babalola; former governor of Osun State, Chief Bisi Akande and the co-chairman, African Newspapers of Nigeria (ANN) Plc, Dr Tokunbo Awolowo Dosumu, have, again, reiterated the calls for the restructuring of the country.
Akande and Awolowo Dosumu, who spoke on Tuesday at the first South-West Stakeholders’ Summit, with the theme: “Education and Economic Development: For the South-West Economic Development Agenda and Good Governance,” organised by the South-West Patriots Movement and held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, advocated a return to regionalism.
The development would see the regions recognised as first line federating units; devolution of power and resource control as it was in the days of Chief Obafemi Awolowo as Premier of the Western Region.
Chief Akande, in his goodwill message at the summit, which was supported by the Awolowo Foundation, DAWN Commission and Odua Chambers of Commerce, maintained that agitations for the reappraisal of the terms of the country’s union was not bad or unexpected, noting that the sooner the discussions and negotiations were done, the better.
According to Akande, in the message delivered by the deputy governor of Osun State, Chief (Mrs) Titi Laoye-Tomori, entitled: “Nigeria must be saved,” the global demand for devolution of more power from the central to the constituent national groups, which were currently ongoing in Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom, among others, was a pointer to the “inescapable fact that a truly negotiated federalism, like was done in bringing about the 1960 Constitution of Nigeria, not by coercion, would be the best panacea for harmonious coexistence among various nationalities and religious groups.”
In a communique read at the end of the summit by the national secretary and chairman of the planning committee of the South-West Patriots Movement, Professor Soji Adejumo, the forum urged the Federal Government to accede to the call for fiscal federalism and devolution of power, which would enable states to take over some critical development issues.
Speaking earlier, the Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Chief Tolu Odebiyi, urged that the Yoruba nation must continue to strive not to lose its lead among the regions in the country, calling for a coalition of all Yoruba groups so that they could speak with one voice.
This was as former Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dr Christopher Kolade and the national coordinator of the South-West Patriots Movement, Chief Oladosu Oladipo, described the Yoruba nation as a progressive group in the comity of groups in the country, stating that there was the urgent need to reposition it to reclaim its pride of place.
According to Kolade, who was the chairman on the occasion, the Yoruba nation and its people had lost their pride of place because the people had failed to maintain all the good virtues handed over to them by its past leaders.