‘If we don’t restructure now, Nigeria will die’ – Southern, Middle belt leaders warn Buhari

The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum has said Nigeria stands the risk of dying if it is not restructured quickly.

The National leader of the forum, Chief Edwin Clark, while giving his opening remarks at the expanded meeting of the SMBFLF in Abuja on Sunday, urged the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to address Nigerians on the state of the nation.

He said, “The purpose of this meeting is very clear. Where are we going in Nigeria? Some are asking for secession, others for a breakup, others are running a unitary system of government.

“Time is moving fast and there is the need to state our position very clear to Nigerians. Mr President is not an emperor. Mr President is not a king. Mr President is not a monarch; he is a politician. He should come out and meet some of us who were here even when he was an ordinary soldier.

This country belongs to all of us; the north alone cannot rule this country, the south alone cannot rule this country.

Clark stated that the country needed a brand-new constitution, adding that the 1963 Constitution recognised the country as a four-legged country where each region developed at its own pace, which was not the case in recent times.

According to him, the situation of things is such that one state that is not developed would be dragging a developed state down.

Clark continued, “What the National Assembly has been doing is fraudulent. For five years now, they have amended the (1999) Constitution five times; they spend N1bn every year and nothing comes out of it. As Governor Fayemi said, it is fraudulent.

“Any amendment on the 1999 Constitution, we have no confidence in it. We must restructure Nigeria. If we do not restructure Nigeria, Nigeria will die. Without restructuring, we are going nowhere.”