At 85, Akintoye urges sober reflection
President of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, his Ohanaeze Ndigbo counterpart, Nnia Nwodo and Aare Afe Babalola (SAN) yesterday insisted on restructuring of the country.

They urged Nigerians to persuade National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently restructure the country to save it from imminent collapse.

Arguing that fresh developments in the country indicated that President Buhari was oblivious of happenings around him, they said he (Buhari) does not really understand the enormity of challenges facing the country.

They spoke at the maiden Goke Omisore Voice of Reason (VOR) Annual Lecture titled, “Restructuring: Building A Knowledge Based Society,” in Lagos.

Adebanjo said, “The Head of State is too illiterate to understand good leadership. You have to change this government to be effective, no matter the economic or political programme, without good leadership, the country cannot move forward.

“You can only talk to somebody who understands your language and it is unfortunate that we have a President who is not as educated as presently required for the country.

“For us to achieve progress and development in Nigeria, those who know Tinubu and all the Yoruba in APC should go and beg them to convince and pressurise the President to restructure this country now. Until that is done, we are doomed.”

On his part, Babalola canvassed that the country should jettison the 1999 Constitution, insisting that it was contributing to the increasing problems in the country.

“The 1999 Constitution encourages indolence, lack of creativity, greed, wanton struggle for positions in the centre and an attitude of begging for monthly allocations from the Federal Government.

“Our constitution is the greatest problem of Nigeria. The operation of the constitution is expensive with its attendance over-concentration of power at the centre, thereby rendering the states and the local governments impotent unlike what obtained under the 1960 and 1963 parliamentary constitution.”

Speaking, Nwodo noted that only the right leadership would determine right policies that would move the country forward.

“What are we doing to ensure that we have the right leadership that will determine the right policies? If we restructure the federation, but have a failed electoral system in which votes are not sacrosanct, a failed political party system in which only owners of the party determine the candidates, we will still be wasting our time,” he said.

Meanwhile, Professor Banji Akintoye has urged sober reflection among Nigerians, challenging them to ask the Federal Government real questions about the security, health, education and global standing.

Akintoye, an emeritus professor of history, who stated this during a reception for his 85th birthday in Lagos, charged the Yoruba people to rediscover the Omoluabi principle that defined the Yoruba race and be their brothers keepers anywhere in the world.