Amid agitations and ethnic tension across the country, the Deputy Leader of the Senate, Senator Bala Ibn Na`Allah, has described the clamour for restructuring of Nigeria as unpatriotic.
Senator Na`Allah noted that the concept of restructuring does not exist in the dictionary of the framers of Nigerian constitution. He said the architect of the demands or agitation for restructuring, fiscal federalism probably did not understand the context from which the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was fashioned.
The lawmaker said: “Let me tell you today, the architect of the demands or agitation for what is called restructuring, fiscal federalism probably do not understand the context from which the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is fashioned, if they do and they understand what we refer to as jurisprudence of constitutionalism, then they would understand that the concept of restructuring does not exist in the dictionary of the framers of our constitution.
“If you look at the preamble of the constitution, we the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria having decided to live together as a united nation under God; so all these concept of fiscal federalism, restructuring etc., is to mislead the public for certain political interest, so it was never in anticipation of the farmers of our constitution that there was going to be such concepts.
“But what the framers of our constitution wanted is a united and prosperous Nigeria under one God; their understanding is that the constitution would be operated in such a manner as to foster the thinking and desires of the people to remain united prosperous under one God.â€
“So when you hear people talking about restructuring, Biafra, about fiscal federalism, these are people who are not patriotic and they would end up worse for it, if it were possible they were allowed to have their way. They can take the example of southern Sudan for it.
“The thinking, the energy of any patriotic Nigerian should be on the administration of our constitution in such a way and manner as to reflect the desires of citizens and to ensure that institutions are built in such a way that quality is pursued in the country, good governance is in place, eliminate corruption to give equal opportunity to the citizens of Nigeria as reflected in our constitution, then we can be one of the greatest countries in the world.â€
He expressed delight in the fact that the present administration did not have what he described as ‘comfortable majority’ in the National Assembly, stressing it would have given the executive arm of government edge to sail through with any request presented to the lawmakers.
