CCN tells Buhari: Restructure now to save Nigeria from collapse

By OLAYINKA OLUKOYA, Abuja

The Christian Council of Nigeria (CCN) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari, to yield to the call for the restructuring of Nigeria, insisting that the current system has continued to cause disunity among Nigerians.

The Chairman of the Ogun State chapter of the Council, Right Reverend Johnson Atere, disclosed this in Abeokuta while calling for true federalism and devolution of power from the Federal Government to the constituent units.

The cleric spoke at a press conference after a meeting of the apex leaders of the Council held at the St. Peter’s Cathedral of the Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion, Ake, Abeokuta.

He blamed the myriad of problems confronting the country on the current system of government, lamenting that Nigeria is retrogressing because the current leaders deviated from the vision and development plans of the nation’s founding fathers.

The cleric said the current system had failed because it gives too much power to the Federal Government at the detriment of the constituent units.

Atere argued that the system had done nothing but caused separation and foster disunity among Nigerians.

He said: “When you have a system that you have practised so long and it is not giving any reasonable dividend, is not improving your status, is not increasing your value, then such system has to be re-examined.

“We also support the restructuring of this country because in a situation that power is centred on a single individual or in a centre, if that person is not God, then there is bound to be abuse.

“And that is what we are now suffering from in Nigeria. For those of us who were alive in the 60s even after the independence, we know that system we were practising then was working, each section of the country was developing at its own pace but all of a sudden that collapsed and we adopted a foreign system that we are not used to and ever since then we have not been able to marry our own system with that new system and so it is like we are confused as a government so restructuring is the way forward.

“When we say restructuring, we support restructuring that will bring the government to the people. The authority should flow from the people, from the local government to the state and the Federal government should have less duty to do because the local government is more closer to the people.

“It has affected us so much that instead of bringing us together we are growing daily to hate one another. That is our source of the problem.”

The cleric commended the federal government for disbanding the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and advocated for total reform and rebranding of the police force.

He urged Governor Dapo Abiodun to emulate other states and commence the implementation of Amotekun to fight security challenges in the state. (Sunday Tribune)