It is time to renegotiate our union – Atiku

A former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has linked Nigeria’s stunted development to the way the country is structured, calling for an urgent renegotiation of the basis for the nation’s union.

According to the former VP, who spoke at a book launch in Abuja on Tuesday, Nigeria is not working effectively because of the way more power was deployed to the centre than the federating states, adding that there was need to restructure the country and renegotiate the union in order to make it stronger and more united.

Atiku said: “Nigeria is not working as well as it should and part of the reason is the way we have structured our country and governance, especially since the late 1960s. The federal government is too big, and too powerful relative to the federating states. That situation needs to change, and calling for that change is patriotic.

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The former number two man also counseled that there was need to stop assuming that anyone calling for the restructuring of the federation is working for the breakup of the country, adding that an excessively powerful centre does not equate with national unity.
Atiku insisted that a powerful centre has made the nation’s unity more fragile and government more unstable and the country more unsafe.

“We must renegotiate our union in order to make it stronger. Greater autonomy, power and resources for states and local authorities will give the federating units greater freedom and flexibility to address local issues, priorities and peculiarities.

“It will help to unleash our people’s creative energies and spur more development. It will reduce the premium placed on capturing power at the centre. It will help with improving security. It will promote healthy rivalries among the federating units and local authorities. It will help make us richer and stronger as a nation.”

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