Restructuring has taken the space in the political theatre called Nigeria, it has become a script advocated with evangelical fervour by various actors in the Nigerian stage. Put to us as an agenda by the elites, masqueraded about by the media, it has been a subject of unending debate,thus eliciting various shades of opinion, yet none has deviated from the fact that this country needs to restructure even if it has been initiated by the same class of people who hadbenefited immensely from this structural imbalance.
It is however important to state clearly that this country had been in need of restructuring immediately after the independence experiment, contrary to the recent call for it which was warranted by the IPOB crisis in the south east and the resurgence of violence in the Niger-Delta. The whole country is under siege,as the disturbances in the South-East and South-South tacitly or directly occur in various manifestations all over the country. We have seen it manifest in the gruesome killings perpetrated by the herdsmen, in the macabre and gory killings by northern youths, kidnapping and Boko haram insurgency. These cries, protest and unending violence all over the country are for a true state that can guarantee equality and equity. Hence the clamour for restructure.
But my fear is that we might not be ready for restructuring despite the seeming evidence before us, for if we must truly restructure, it has to be negotiated. This negotiation has to take new forms. This reality is what make me feel that the advocates of restructuring are either not sincere or oblivious of the fact that we must risk losing what we have to get what is needed. If we must restructure, it has to be negotiated, and for us to negotiate this restructuring, we must first renegotiate the state.
Renegotiating the state means renegotiating its sovereignty which has always been a “no go area”. Issues that pertains to our corporate existence as a nation, the sanctity of the constitution all have to be debated if we must truly restructure. These and other sacred matters which pertains to our statehood should be subjected to rigorous debate in a truly representative, generally accepted and apolitical conference whose conclusions should be subjected to a referendum. Only after this can we truly say that we are on the right path. Anything short of a genuine and holistic negotiation only postpones the eventual consequence of not addressing the core issues.
We must negotiate our way to statehood whether through war or on a roundtable, we must own the state, and to own the state is to own its formation process.
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Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija
