LEADER of a pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, Ayo Adebanjo, has said that the root cause of crisis facing Nigeria as a nation is embedded in the 1999 Constitution, saying that it should be discarded.
Adebanjo said this on Wednesday when he featured as a panellist in a webinar organised by The ICIR entitled, ‘Solving Nigeria’s Security Conundrum: A Pan-Nigerian approach.’
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He said the constitution often created disunity among the citizens.
“The root of the problem we are facing today is imposed on us by the awkward constitution,” he said, emphasising that it was wrong to govern a plural society with a unitary constitution.
Adebanjo also said there would not have been Oduduwa, Bakassi and IPOB agitations if the authorities were doing their job to protect the interest of all the ethnic nationalities.
“There would have been no agitations from various regions of the country if the authourities are doing their job to protect the people.”
There have been killings of security officials and destruction of police stations in the South-East region in recent times.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), led by the detained Nnamdi Kanu, has also arisen, creating secessionist tension in the region.
In the South-West, Sunday Adeyemo, known as Sunday Igboho, has also asked Fulani residents in the region to leave due to rising cases of kidnapping and other crimes.
Adebanjo said the solution to insecurity was to restructure the country, stressing that true federalism was the way to go.
“The moment the leaders restructure the country back to federalism is when there would be solution,” he said.
The elder statesman, however, berated the country’s constitution, saying it appropriated too much power on the president of the country.
“This constitution makes the president the most powerful president in the whole world,” he noted.
He added that every region would develop if true federalism was reintroduced, saying state police had become inevitable.
He wondered why the Federal Government in Abuja would be supervising the security situation on Anambra State, stressing that it was abnormal and unsustainable.
'Niyi worked with The ICIR as an Investigative Reporter and Fact-checker from 2020 till September 2022. You can shoot him an email via niyioyedeji1@gmail.com. You can as well follow him on Twitter via @niyi_oyedeji.