‘There is no alternative to restructuring’

THE Yoruba Summit Group (YSG), has said there is no alternative e to restructuring.
It also declared its backing for the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF)’s demand seeking a referendum on the future of Nigeria as a federation
The ACF Secretary-General, Murtala Aliyu had said the North was not afraid of restructuring, but preferred a referendum to determine the basis for peaceful coexistence.
He maintained that national unity is negotiable.
In a statement in Lagos, the YSG said it aligned with the position of the ACF and other groups calling for a Referendum, “a safely internationally conducted plebiscite to be carried out in the the six zones by the people who constitute these component parts, whether they so wish to remain together or go their separate ways as it was done in both the Northern and Southern Cameroons on the 11th of February 1961.”
YSG official Mogaji Gboyega Adejumo noted that past calls for restructuring were the panacea to the avoidance of chaos, anarchy and tyranny.
The group pointed out that the failure of the present administration to heed to the call for restructuring led to the recent to the recent EndSARS protests.
Adejumo said: “It is imperative that the territory that was known as Western Region under the 1963 Constitution, along with other peoples having affinities with the Yoruba Nation in Edo, Delta, Kogi and Kwara be organised in pursuit of our political identity and socio-economic economic welfare of all.
“Notwithstanding any political labels, our quest is to think through and fashion out the pathway for the progress of our peoples at the homeland and across the world.

“As a federation of all civil society groups, the Yoruba Summit Group has now decided to expand its reach and focus to align with all current and past political office holders, religion and traditional leaders, professionals, businesses, academia, retired military and paramilitary officers, being representatives of the six states: plus, nominees from Yoruba communities in Kogi, Kwara, Edo and the Yoruba part of Delta States.
“In doing this, an outreach mechanism has been worked out that will also ensure the assimilation of our youths, especially those who have excelled academically and innovatively out of our tertiary institutions in the last 20 years.
He added: “The YSG has now set for itself the historic objective of undertaking the redesigning and re-configuration of our political space towards the building of an egalitarian society that guarantees freedom and abundance for all, inclusive of the unborn.
“To demonstrate our resolve to do right and the best for our nation, the instruments and processes for realizing these objectives would be rolled out soon. A viable and proper leadership recruitment template besides the periodic distribution of money at election period would be developed.
“Within this template, would be incorporated, the neighbourhood security, such that the type of brigandage recently witnessed would be a thing of the past.
“In due course, the minimum irreducible constitutional conditions that will enable our being in peaceful neighbourliness with all others in Nigeria would be published.
“At whatever date and venue, the Yoruba Nation would by so doing be in readiness for talks with all other ethnic nationalities as may be considered expedient. We shall no longer be held down by acts and or inaction of any or all of our current compatriots.”
Also speaking on the 2023 timetable released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the group said it is illogical to be talking about an election now when Nigeria is faced with myriads of problems that require urgent solution.