Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said the best time for Nigeria to restructure is now when there are calls from various quarters.

Atiku said this on Monday while delivering the annual speech at the  Prof. Ademola Popoola Public Lecture, Faculty of Law, Obafemi Awolowo University.

He said restructuring will address many problems facing the country.

Atiku said the merger of self-sufficient states with unviable ones will favour citizens.

He said,  “There  is no doubt that many of our states are not viable, and were not viable from the start, once you take away the Federal Government  allocations from Abuja. We have to find creative ways to make them viable in a changed federal system. Collaboration among states  in a region or zone will help.

“We can examine the plausibility  of using the existing geopolitical zones as federating units. We can also find other ways to determine the viability of states, for example by introducing a means of test such that a state that is unable to generate a certain percentage of its expenditures internally for a specified period of time will be deemed unviable and collapsed into another or a group of states. We need to start producing again and collecting taxes to run our governments in a more sustainable way with greater transparency and accountability.

“We have a unique opportunity now, with all the agitations and clamour for restructuring, to have a conversation that would lead to changes in the structure of our federation in order to make it stronger, enhance our unity and promote peace, security and better and more accountable governance.”

Azeez