A constitutional lawyer,
Prof. Ben Nwabueze, last Tuesday called for the restructuring of the Nigerian nation to accommodate interests of the constituent units of the federation.
Nwabueze made the call in Uyo while giving a keynote address at the National Political Summit on the theme, “Roadmap to Political Stability and National Security in Nigeria”.
He expressed optimism that the restructuring would radically address over concentration of powers and financial resources at the centre.
Nwabueze added that it would revise the financial relationship between the Executive and the Legislative and limit the cost of governance by making legislative assemblies part time.
He said that the office of the president should be limited to a single, non-renewable term of five or six years.
Nwabueze suggested that the office of the president be rotated among its 389 ethnic nationalities. He said that the country needed to convene a national conference to address its numerous problems and challenges, to save it from breaking up.
“A national conference is necessary as means for us, under the leadership of Mr President, to chart a course of life for ourselves, create as it were, a new society, which would be a just society.”
He said that a delegation of 10 eminent Nigerians, including two women, would be selected to discuss with the President on the mode of the conference.
In his remark, the Chairman of the session, retired Air Commodore Dan Suleiman, said that the Summit was organised to discuss the challenges facing Nigeria as a nation.
“The discussion will help us to chart the course of this country in the way we all desire.“We need to find out what went wrong with Nigeria. Nigeria is an entity we must all try to uphold as one nation, “ he said.
Suleiman, a former military governor of Plateau, expressed the hope that the gathering would come up with tangible decisions that “will lead us to the promised land.” Akwa Ibom governor, Mr Godswill Akpabio, said that one of the challenges, which the summit must address, was “how to cement the crack and keep the country together”.
The governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mr Aniekan Umanah, however, noted that the country had survived as a nation for more than five decades and urged that the tempo continued.
“We are in this boat and we must keep the boat afloat, it does not matter how we came together but we must keep it afloat,” Akpabio said.
He advised Nigerians to imbibe the teachings of different religious organisations which preach love and unity.
In her goodwill message, Mrs Josephine Anenih, former Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, noted that any national conference without the presence of women could not be called national conference.
She said that women, being the burden bearers in the country should be given equal representation in decision-making process of the country adding that there was need to support the president and “not to run down our leaders”.