OPC hails widespread support for restructuring

The pan-Yoruba group, Odua People’s Congress, has applauded the growing support for restructuring of the country, even as it re-echoed its call for the early completion of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, to prevent further loss of lives.
The group in a statement issued in Lagos at the weekend, expressed optimism that the restructuring of the country would be effected soon.
It said the oneness of the different zones in the country in demanding the immediate restructuring of the country along regional line, was an indication that the liberation of the Nigerian masses might be at hand.
The group added, “The unity of purpose of the South-West in the demand for the long overdue restructuring of our dear country is commendable.”
The OPC, in the statement by its National Coordinator, Otunba Gani Adams, said the country’s leadership would have discovered by now that only the people themselves could determine how they want to be led.
According to the OPC, its optimism is rooted in the fact that it is becoming clearer by the day that the demand for the restructuring of the country is coming from the governed themselves, stating that the government, including the legislative bodies, have no other choice than to give to the people what they want.
Giving kudos to Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation for its recent call on the North not to dismiss the calls for restructuring, but do everything to ensure its workability, the OPC said the country, like the Foundation observed, is at crossroads, where many issues threatening its continued existence must be appropriately addressed.
The group also applauded the call by the Ohaneze-Ndigbo to the Federal Government to heed the call for the urgent restructuring of the country. It particularly hailed the eastern group’s President-General, Chief John Nwodo’s call at the Chatham House, London, earlier in the week, which drew the attention of government, among others, to the proposal of Nigeria as
“federating units with a region at each of the six geo- political units, whose constitution will be agreed to and adopted by the states in the geopolitical region.”
It said, “The regions will have the powers to merge existing states or create new ones. There will be regional and state legislatures and judiciary dealing with making and interpreting laws made in the respective political entities. This approach proposes a revenue sharing formulae of 15 per cent to the Federal Government, 35 per cent to the State Government and 50 per cent to the state governments.”
According to the Yoruba group, the entire nation has realised that restructuring the nation along regional line is the only practicable way of taking the country out of the woods.
Meanwhile, the OPC has repeated its call on the Federal Government to work with the National Assembly “to ensure the completion of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway immediately.”
The group had, before now, lamented the lackadaisical attitude of some members of the Executive and Legislature “to the urgency that should be attached to fixing this
important road” and had declared that “the lack of seriousness is a reflection of why things are not working in Nigeria”.