Former Education Minister, Oby Ezekwesili, has rued the current situation of Nigeria. She said the country has failed in its practice of democracy, federalism as well as constitutionalism.
Noting that every geopolitical region detests the way the nation is presently constituted, Ezekwesili said the 1999 Constitution was not helping the matter, adding that the country needs to be restructured to salvage its current situation.
She stated this at a Restructuring Summit organised by the Restructuring Actualisation Movement in Abuja on Thursday.
“Nigeria has engaged in a failed practice of democracy, federalism as well as constitutionalism. Ezekwesili said.
“Nigeria has become an orphan country since infancy. Whereas some people would always quote Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who said Nigeria is a mere geographical reality, the truth is that every region of this country has shown in one way or the other that they have absolutely no interest in Nigeria as constructed.
“The latest revelation of this situation is the fact that some of our Fulani brothers are saying that there is a closer affinity between them and the Fulani person from any part of the world beyond anything they can feel for the Nigerian, who is not Fulani, and that’s incredible,” she said.
Prof. Anya O. Anya, a member of the Governing Board, Obafemi Awolowo Leadership Award, also speaking at the event said there was no way Nigeria could attain development and growth under the current single-digit economic rate.
He said, “History has shown that countries which attained fast-track development were able to do so when their growth rate broke through to double digits. This is so because economies that grow at a minimum of 7.5 per cent will usually transit to the point where the GDP per capita is doubled every decade.”
According to the summit chairman, Maj. Gen Henry Ayoola, the nation’s current state remains a far cry from the lofty ideal of its founding fathers, hence, the yearning and clarion call for change.