By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Recently, the call for the restructuring of Nigeria became more intense after the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) worldwide, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, said this was the right time to listen to agitators.
Speaking on Saturday at the 60th Independence Day Celebration Symposium organised by RCCG and the Nehemiah Leadership Institute, the respected cleric said the government must restructure the country or the nation breaks up.
According to him, Nigeria can adopt the systems of government practised in the United Kingdom and the United States of America (USA).
Business Post reports that while the British have the parliamentary system of government, America practices the presidential system of government.
When Nigeria gained independence from Britain in 1960, it adopted the parliamentary system of government until it was aborted through a military coup in 1966.
“Why can’t we have a system of government that will create what I will call the United States of Nigeria?” the former university lecturer asked.
“Let me explain. We all know that we must restructure. It’s either we restructure or we break, you don’t have to be a prophet to know that one. That is certain – restructure or we break up,” the man of God, who is fondly called Daddy GO by his members, said.
“Now, we don’t want to break up, God forbid. In restructuring, why don’t we have a Nigerian kind of democracy? At the federal level, why don’t we have a President and a Prime Minister?” Pastor Adeboye queried further.
“If we have a President and a Prime Minister and we share responsibilities between these two so that one is not an appendage to the other.
“For example, if the President controls the Army and the Prime Minister controls the Police. If the President controls resources like oil and mining and the Prime Minister controls finance and inland revenue, taxes, customs etc. You just divide responsibilities between the two,” the 78-year cleric, who hardly criticises the government, suggested in his speech.
But the presidency, in a statement issued by Mr Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari, described these talks as “unhelpful and unwarranted,” warning the cleric and others agitators of restructuring that the current government will not succumb to threats.
“This government will not succumb to threats and take any decision out of pressure at a time when the nation’s full attention is needed to deal with the security challenges facing it at a time of the COVID-19 health crisis,” Mr Shehu said in the statement issued on Sunday night.
The media aide said President Buhari has the mandate and “the interests of 200 million Nigerians” to protect and will take a decision “out of fear or threats especially in this hour of [a] health crisis.”
“The President as an elected leader under this constitution will continue to work with patriotic Nigerians, through and in line with the parliamentary processes to finding solutions to structural and other impediments to the growth and wellbeing of the nation and its people,” Mr Shehu concluded.