Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Hassan Saliu has tasked the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to accede to the demand of Nigerians for restructuring since it is part of its agenda.
Saliu of the University of Ilorin, spoke with Daily Trust on the sidelines of the public presentation of the book, “Roundtable Discussion on Economy and Restructuring in Nigeria,” published by the Ilorin-based Pilot Newspaper.
According to him, the deafening agitation for restructuring was borne out of the need to engender development across the country.
Saliu noted that the general opinion among Nigerians is that the current system is antithetical to development.
He said, “In democracy, nothing can be said to be settled, everything has to be opened up, if it’s the desire of Nigerians to have restructuring, I don’t see any problem in that.
“What we are saying is that restructuring can be addressed in many ways. There is total restructuring, there is partial or what Jega will call incremental restructuring, what is important is that we keep moving.
“Nigerians said they want restructuring, it is incumbent on the government to find a way of accommodating the request one way or the other and I even concede to the government that since APC has the policy of the government should adjust to the demand in line with the vision of APC.”
The university don reiterated that restructuring and economy are interdependent, saying economic development cannot be achieved without empowering each region to harness their resources.
He said: “People believe that the current political structure in Nigeria is not growing the economy, because there are so many resources buried under the ground that have not been explored, simply because of the political structure in Nigeria.
“States have resources, but going by different laws, they cannot properly explore the resources, they have to rely on the federal and that is killing the economy.
“In other words, restructuring means freeing up all the obstacles on the way of good performance of the economy for the benefit of Nigeria, and the argument is that, you cannot get it unless you solve the political issues, with the structure we have it will be difficult for Nigeria because the structure is killing.”
