Yakubu Gowon, former Military Head of State, says the restructuring of the country as currently agitated for, is impossible.

The retired general, who spoke in Minna, the Niger State Capital, on Saturday pointed out that the ethnic composition of the country will not allow for restructuring.

“Nigeria is made up of over 500 ethnic groups, languages and dialects and so many various groups called nationalities and they want restructuring,” he said.

“This restructuring everybody is asking for, we will have about 500 different ideas of restructuring. There is call for restructuring to reduce the number of states to only a few either back to the old region or to the zones.”

Channels reports that Gowon urged Nigerians to have faith in the indivisibility of the country, rather than agitating for its restructuring.

He pointed out that states would not want to be merged into regions, thereby making restructuring untenable.

He also wondered if the states can be financially independent when the restructuring sails through.

“Those are some of the ideas that I do not know whether it will be possible for any state today to wish to be merged with another state. Let us see whether our politicians will see guidelines to be able to achieve what they want.

“But I have my problem whether the states will be financially capable to run their states properly.”

Gowon is a frequent preacher of Nigeria’s unity, and often holds prayer sessions across states.