I am the only presidential candidate today that has laid out a very
clear vision of constitutional restructuring. I will give you my lecture
at the Nigerian Political Science Association Annual Conference in the
South East zone which I gave sometime in October at the University of
Nigeria, Nsukka. There I laid out a very clear vision of restructuring,
going beyond people just using the term to seek votes. I am not using
restructuring as just a phrase to catch votes.
I believe that
Nigeria cannot survive if we are not constitutionally restructured. By
that I mean Nigeria must be re-federalized. We must be brought back to
becoming a proper federation. To be very clear about what I mean,
restructuring is not just devolution of powers, state police. That in
itself is not restructuring. It is a part of restructuring, but in and
on itself, is not restructuring.
So, there is a 419 version of
restructuring and there is the real restructuring of Nigeria. Any
restructuring that is not accompanied by a fundamentally new
constitution, that recreates a proper federation for Nigeria, as was
done in 1963 constitution, will not address the problem.
The
problem, as we said, is structural. As president, I will lead this
process of restructuring Nigeria, working closely with the National
Assembly and the state assemblies.
So, my vision of restructuring
is one in which Nigeria is returned to being a federation, that’s
number 1. Number 2, in which that federation is structured on the basis
of the central government and sub-national government that are the
geopolitical zones, which will become economic zones, not on the basis
of states I want to be very clear. I believe that the federating unit
should be zones or regions.
Please, speaking seriously, I believe
Nigeria should have a merit-based presidency so that we can actually
make progress. We should stop rotating inside poverty. We are rotating
inside poverty. Do you like that?
Don’t worry about money. It
does not matter. If money were everything, there are some candidates in
this race who would have been president some 25 years ago. They have
been at it since then. They have not. But, they have always had a lot of
money.
Let us be careful about the worship of money. Money is
necessary to run an election in terms of logistics and messaging. But, I
want you to know that in this country, what we have is a political
industrial complex in which politics have become the biggest business in
town.
social intervention projects, giving traders money is vote
buying. Let me give you a quotation from the Christian Holy book. “Some
trust in their chariots, others trust in horses; But, we will call upon
the name of our God.”
I want you to understand something that we
are in a historical moment in Nigeria. People are tired of the recycled
old politicians. Our people want something new. You are
under-estimating the strength of that feeling. But because I have gone
across the whole country talking to ordinary Nigerians, I know far more
accurately how people feel. So, there is nothing impossible about
defeating an incumbent. Mr. Buhari defeated an incumbent, right? And
that person ceded power.
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