The church in Nigeria has lent its voice to the groundswell of calls for the restructuring of the country, saying it is the only way out of an impending implosion.
The powerful voice is from the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), septuagenarian-Pastor Enoch Adeboye, Persecondnews reports.
Speaking at a symposium in Lagos on Saturday, the revered cleric insisted that only restructuring will address the socio-political challenges facing the country.
Adeboye said: “It is either we restructure or we break, you don’t have to be a prophet to know that one. That is certain – restructure or we break up.
“Now, we don’t want to break up, God forbid. In the restructuring, why don’t we have a Nigerian kind of democracy? At the federal level, why don’t we have a President and a Prime Minister?’’
“Without any doubt, we must restructure and do it as soon as possible. The United States of Nigeria is likely to survive than our present structure.’’
The symposium with the theme, “Where will Nigeria be in 2060?’’, and co-organized by the Redeemed Christian Church of God and the Nehemiah Leadership Institute, was part of activities commemorating Nigeria’s 60th Independence Anniversary.
On areas of possible restructuring, Adeboye advocated a blend of British and American systems of government as against the bogus American model of the presidential system.
“Why can’t we have a system of government that is 100 percent Nigerian, unique to us? For example, we started on with the British system of government, somewhere along the line, we moved over to the American system of government.
“Can’t we have a combination of both and see whether it could help us solve our problems because in Mathematics if you want to solve a problem, you try what we call Real Analysis, then if it doesn’t work, then you move on to Complex Analysis and see whether that will help you. If that fails, you move on to Vector Analysis and so on.
“I believe that we might want to look at the problems of Nigeria in a slightly different manner. Some people feel that all our problems will be over if Nigeria should break up.
“I think that is trying to solve the problems of Nigeria as if it is a Simple Equation. The problems of Nigeria will require quite a bit of Simultaneous Equation and some of them are not going to be Linear either – forgive me I am talking as a Mathematician.
“Why can’t we have a system of government that will create what I will call the United States of Nigeria? Let me explain. We all know that we must restructure,’’ Persecondnews quotes the former University of Lagos senior lecturer said.
He explained further: “If we have a President and a Prime Minister and we share responsibilities between these two so that one is not an appendage to the other.
“For example, if the President controls the Army and the Prime Minister controls the Police. If the President controls resources likes oil and mining and the Prime Minister controls finance and inland revenue, taxes, customs, etc. You just divide responsibilities between the two.
“At the state level, you have the governor and the premier, and the same way, you distribute responsibilities between these people in such a manner that one cannot really go without the other. Maybe we might begin to tackle the problems.’’
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