THE Presidency says the nation’s full attention is needed to deal with the security challenges facing it at a time of the COVID-19 health crisis, rather than focusing on calls for the restructuring of the country.
Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity said in a statement that the Federal Government would not succumb to threats and take any decision out of pressure describing the calls for restructuring as unpatriotic outbursts that are both unhelpful and unwarranted.
“The Presidency responds to the recurring threats to the corporate existence of the country with factions giving specific timelines for the President to do one thing or another or else, in their language, ‘the nation will break up,” Shehu said. statement.
“This is to warn that such unpatriotic outbursts are both unhelpful and unwarranted as this government will not succumb to threats and take any decision out of pressure at a time when the nation’s full attention is needed to deal with the security challenges facing it at a time of the COVID-19 health crisis.”
The presidential spokesperson further warned that the government under President Muhammadu Buhari would not take any decision against the interests of 200 million Nigerians, who are the President’s first responsibility under the constitution, out of fear or threats especially in this hour of a health crisis.”
He added that President Muhammadu Buhari would “continue to work with patriotic Nigerians” in line with the legislative process to finding solutions to “structural and other impediments to the growth and wellbeing of the nation and its people”.
Shehu’s statement follows calls by different groups and individuals that the government should carry out a restructuring of the country.
Enoch Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) had on Saturday advised the Federal Government to consider restructuring the current system of government to proffer possible solutions to challenges confronting the country.
“We all know that we must restructure. It is either we restructure or we break, you don’t have to be a prophet to know that one. That is certain – restructure or we break up. Now, we don’t want to break up, God forbid. In the restructuring, why don’t we have a Nigerian kind of democracy? At the federal level, why don’t we have a President and a Prime Minister? he said.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94