By Vanessa Obioha
The Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Chief Gani Adams has joined the majority of the Yoruba people to ask for regionalism as a way forward to deal with the issues affecting the country.
Adams who spoke yesterday in Lagos at the National Pilot Newspaper’s book presentation of ‘Roundtable Discussion on Economy and Restructuring in Nigeria,’ said that the fillers he was getting from Yoruba people both at home and abroad were that Nigeria’s growing issues had gone beyond restructuring. “The time is right for us to fight for self-determination,” he said, adding that he supports the “popular view of the Yoruba people that we have graduated from the restructuring which we have been clamouring for since 1991 to self-determination.”
Adams said he supported the popular opinion because the country’s powerful political bloc was not in support of restructuring.
He warned that of the possibility that the country’s unity being threatened if there is no restructuring within the next three years.
The Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland argued that the way forward without resorting to war is either self-determination or restructuring to regionalism through confederacy in the content of the constitution.
“What the Yoruba nation want now – the majority is self-determination. We may have some elite who are benefiting from the system. Self-determination can be achieved without war or crisis through a referendum, through the parliament in different ways. It can be achieved through regionalism, that is when you have a region, you give them about 80 per cent of autonomy,” he explained.
He emphasised that self-determination does not connote treason or offence, adding that it depends on one’s definition of it.
A recurring statement from the submissions by different guests at the book launch was that Nigeria’s restructuring was long overdue.
The book reviewer, the President of Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA), Aloysius-Michaels Okolie in his review, argued that the major challenge to the term restructuring is the name itself.
“People begin to think of restructuring from division and disintegration, and not from reform. You cannot understand the problem of this country without looking at the basics,” he explained.
He added that restructuring flowed from the dynamic nature of socio reality and swept across generations.
“When it becomes truncated or resistant, it leads to internal goals, and perhaps makes violence, and instability, expedient, inevitable and permissible.”
Lauding the 158-page book with seven chapters, Okolie advised that it should be made available to students.
‘Roundtable Discussion on Economy and Restructuring in Nigeria’ was edited by Prof. Hassan Saliu and the Managing Director of the newspaper Mr. Billy Adedamola.
It contains various views plumbing the economy with incisive propositions.
“As a journalist, I fervently believe that our responsibility should not be limited to reporting news and event. We have a role to play in nation-building. Of late, our dear nation has been going through a crisis, a kind that has not been witnessed for a long time. One of the issues of this crisis is the economy. That has always been the bane of our national economy. No government from independence till date has been able to find a lasting solution to the problem,” Adedamola added.
