SERGIUS Ogun, a member of the House of Representatives representing Esan North-East/Esan South- East Federal Constituency has said that only the blind would say things are working well in Nigeria.
Ogun made this remark when he featured on Arise TV on Thursday to speak about restructuring and the ENDSARS protests against police brutality in Nigeria.
“It is only the blind that would sit down today and say things are working well in Nigeria,” said Ogun.
When asked to comment on Northern leaders who said the reason behind the ENDSARS protest is to force a regime change, Ogun said it is quite unfortunate.
“It is very unfortunate that they would think like that but that is no news to me because I have colleagues in the House who are from the North, it was the same sentiment they were expressing and I was surprised that anybody would talk like that but it’s very unfortunate that people would still think like that today,” Ogun added.
According to him, the said assertion of the Northern leaders further called for the need for restructuring in Nigeria.
“Again if you look at some of the reasons they had used it clearly explains why we should not have a unified system of government while we pretend to have a federal system of government.
Everything is wrong with the system today and that is why most people are talking about restructuring and again when you talking about restructuring it is only the North that is saying ‘you cannot force us, you cannot blackmail us into restructuring,” the lawmaker noted.
Ogun stated that in 2018, the All Progressive Congress had proposed constitutional review to throw its weight behind true federalism but has failed to do anything substantial hitherto.
“What have they done about true federalism? States should be able to make independent decisions; States should be able to generate resources to take care of their needs. We have copied this system from the United States but why are we not utilizing it like they are doing in the US. There should be less power in the federal government.
Religious, ethnic groups, as well as other prominent personalities in some part of Nigeria, has also called for a restructuring of the Nigerian system of governance.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94