The Yoruba Ronu Leadership Forum has warned Nigerians to beware of politicians seeking insensitive and self-serving clamour for restructuring.
The group warned that such clamour was unconstitutional and could further divide Nigerians along religious and tribal lines.
In a statement yesterday in Lagos by its Secretary-General, Akin Malaolu, the group noted that the agitation was being fuelled by desperate politicians.
It said there was no evidence that the Southwest supported the call, notwithstanding the sentiments of the Afenifere group.
The statement said: “The clamour for restructuring is insensitive and self-serving.
“It would be untrue to say that Southwest indigenes support the insensitive clamour for restructuring; it would be equally untrue to say that the Southwest people of Nigeria are in companionship with the ‘Afenifere group.’
“The restructuring of Nigeria cannot be legitimate if it is at variance with our constitution.
“It is to us an extreme measure that can further divide Nigerians along religious and tribal lines and increase the intensity of spasms of communal bloodletting across the nation. With restructuring, Boko Haram will be a child’s play.”
The forum described the clamour for restructuring as a “wrong route” sponsored by “usurpers who lost out suddenly and helplessly in the 2015 general elections and their wounds have remained unhealed due to dwindling ill-gotten wealth”.
Yoruba Ronu noted that years of stunted growth had created “abject poverty, unemployment and deprivations” for Nigerians.
It added: “But the good news is that the current government at the centre is doing its best to reorder our priorities with concerted efforts noticeable in all areas.”
Yoruba Ronu said most states and local governments were in wrong hands “and leaders and elders should take a critical look at their own domains first and foremost before adventuring into the national space”.
It said: “No governor in Nigeria today has been able to create any noticeable employment for our teeming youths since 2011. Salaries are seldom paid; pensioners are languishing due to the enormous weight of corruption on states’ and local governments’ finances.”
The forum said President Muhammadu Buhari deserves praise, not vilification, from “elders who should know the truth but appear more interested in playing politics”.
Yoruba Ronu said: “Nigeria and Nigerians deserve peace to grow their nation in all areas and it is everyone’s duty to give same through contributions and not competition.
“We must congratulate ourselves that Nigeria has been taken back from wrong hands, from false friends and from leaders without milk of human kindness. We urge Nigerians to defend their country loyally and faithfully, as being done by the President and his team.”