Former Minister of Health, Prof. ABC Nwosu, is in the eye-of-the-storm over his propagation of a brand of restructuring even as his kinsmen in the South-East accuse him of being an agent hired to pervert a welcome agenda, reports Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu
FORMER Minister of Health, Prof. ABC Nwosu, may have kicked the Hornets’ Nest when he tried, during the week, to market a brand of restructuring that would be limited to devolution of some peripheral powers to the state. In an interview he granted a national newspaper, the former Political Adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, suggested adoption of a restructuring formula that will ignore the popular agitation for regional autonomy by majority of Nigerians in the South-East, South-South and South-West regions.
Reacting to Nwosu’s treatise, some South-East groups, including, Igbo Youth Movement, Igbo Women Assembly and South East Christian Network, met in Enugu at the weekend and frowned at what they described as “a Kite flown by Prof. A.B.C Nwosu, albeit, that regional autonomy is not the demand of Nigerians who desire to see a restructuring of the polity, but a mere devolution of more powers, more resources and more responsibilities to the 36 states from the centre.”
All the groups and activists in attendance at the joint meeting condemned Nwosu and some other Igbo elders, including retired senior military officers, who they alleged have been hired to market an agenda of some northern elements and to package that agenda as a South-East agenda.
Condemning such action, the groups insisted that only regional autonomy, anchored on true federalism can save Nigeria. They accused Nwosu of being hired by enemies of the people, to fly a dangerous kite; warning that “Nigeria must be restructured into six regions, nothing else.”
Evang. Elliot Ugochukwu-Uko, founder of Igbo Youth Movement and Deputy Secretary, Igbo Leaders of Thought, said “Prof. A.B.C. Nwosu has again betrayed his people, by placing his political relationship with a Northern 2019 Presidential hopeful over and above the survival and well-being of the country and the deliverance of his people from eternal slavery.
He said Nwosu is merely flying a kite to test the waters and monitor reactions in order to lunch an attempt to sell the Northern version of restructuring down the throats of gullible Nigerians. His words: “The North wants to retain the unjust and unfair 36 states and 774 Local Government structure by all means, but incidentally, that is the crux of the disaffection that is at the root of the bitterness in the land. You cannot retain the source of the anger in the land and claim to have restructured the country, by merely devolving more power and resources to the states. That will not stop the agitation, unless they do not want all these agitations to stop, the only way to restore peace to Nigeria is a restructuring along the lines of six regions as federating units, built on true fiscal federalism, as the 1963 Constitution where regions managed their resources and paid a certain percentage to run the centre. Anything short of that will achieve nothing.
“I advice Prof. A.B.C. Nwosu to retrace his steps of attempting to sell Northern version of restructuring, just so he could be politically correct with his northern friends. It’s a hard sell, it won’t fly,” he said.
Bishop Micheal Ibeneme, Coordinator of South East Christian Network, lamented: “It’s a pity that Northerners always find willing Easterners, any time they plot to subvert and undermine any good thing in Nigeria. Prof. Nwosu knows the position of his people at Aburi, Ghana 41 years ago; he knows our people’s written position at the 1994/95 Constitutional Conference, where Abacha even agreed to adopt the six geo-political zones as federating units; Nwosu knows the people’s demands for regional autonomy both at Obasanjo’s 2005 Political Reform Conference and Goodluck Jonathan’s 2014 Confab. He knows that the states cannot be the federating units, because the real quarrel is how the state and local government were created to cheat and oppress the East. Is he saying that the East should continue to suffer the cheating? We want our own Eastern Region, where we will explode our potentials and go to the moon; why are they afraid to give us back our beloved Eastern Region? Dr. M.I. Okpara proved to the world what we can do. Only a reversal to six regions can save Nigeria now; I challenge A.B.C. Nwosu to get to his home town, Nnewi, and tell them that states will be the federating units, they will lynch him there. He should not destroy the future of his people just for 2019 political relevance; everybody knows the North handed out that agenda to A.B.C Nwosu to market; it is a shame. The people will embarrass him,” he said, adding, “While pretending that he was supporting restructuring, he cleverly countered regionalism which is the key demand of the people, without reverting to regions, there is no point restructuring,” he concluded.
Chief (Mrs.) Mariah Okwor of Igbo Women Assembly (IWA) said “the whole world have advised President Mohammadu Buhari to restructure Nigeria without delay, but the North quickly packaged their own perverted version of restructuring and handed it over to some people to sell, but it will not work.” She added: “Since John Kerry handed over the grave warning to both President Buhari and Sultan of Sokoto of the dangers of continuing the unhelpful delay to restructure Nigeria, the enemies of restructuring quickly articulated a watered-down and fake version which Prof. A.B.C Nwosu and Co. are now struggling to market; we plead with him, that all the people want is regional autonomy and nothing else.
“The states cannot be used as federating units because the creation of the states and local government were skewed against our people. Give us back our Eastern Region and watch us go to the moon in 10 years. We are caged and imprisoned in this 36 states structure. Prof. A.B.C Nwosu can never succeed in his unwholesome attempt to sell Northern version of restructuring to us, nobody will buy it. Only restructuring along six regions is acceptable, anything else is fake and unhelpful,” she said.
It would be recalled that Prof. A.B.C Nwosu has said in an interview in a national newspaper on Thursday 15th September 2016 that “Restructuring is not going back to regions; I am shocked at that kind of ignorance and nonsense. Who says restructuring is going back to regionalization.” He also said “I belong to the school that regards restructuring more of devolution of power than regionalisation of Nigeria.”
Reacting to this after a joint meeting in Enugu at the weekend, the groups said Nwosu knows all along that only regionalisation will save Nigeria, but was only trying to please his masters by aligning himself with the version of restructuring that the North finds acceptable, which entails, sustaining the 36 states created by Northern generals by devolving some powers from the centre to the 36 states. They maintained that, that would not assuage the agitators and cannot solve Nigerians economics and political woes. They therefore insisted that only a new version of the 1963 Federal Constitution can save Nigeria now. Without reverting to six regions anchored on true fiscal federalism, Nigeria will not survive. They maintained.
The Igbo Student Union, The Igbo Traders Association and World Igbo Congress have also threatened to sanction any Easterner found marketing this alleged perverted version of restructuring, which they believe will not solve any of the problems presently bedeviling Nigeria today.
