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At National Point newspaper’s 10th anniversary, Horsfall, Adebanjo, others seek restructuring

By Bertram Nwannekanma
27 October 2017   |   4:11 am
Horsfall, a former security chief, said the country was disabled and, therefore, needed restructuring for renewal and survival as one indivisible nation.

Executive Director, National Point, Ibiba Don Pedro (left); elder statesman, Chief Alfred Horsfall and Afenifere chieftain, Chief Ayo Adebanjo at the celebration of the 10th year of the publication and book presentation in Lagos…yesterday. PHOTO: NAJEEM RAHEEM

Eminent Nigerians and elder statesmen, among them Albert Korubo Horsfall and Ayo Adebanjo yesterday renewed calls for the restructuring of the country.
They argued that Nigeria’s restructuring should be in tandem with the vision of the founding fathers, saying it was the only way to guarantee peace, unity and prosperity in the country.

Speaking separately at a colloquium and book presentation to mark the 10 years anniversary of the National Point newspaper in Lagos, they said Nigerians were united in their call for restructuring.

Horsfall, a former security chief, said the country was disabled and, therefore, needed restructuring for renewal and survival as one indivisible nation.He said the country could not live up to its potentials as one of the greatest countries on earth and biggest community of black race to coexist without restructuring.

Stressing that the nation’s problems were self-inflicted, he urged Nigerians to rise and stop poking at each other always to ensure that the country regains its posture.

He stressed that the country’s size has a huge advantage for its economy and that the regions were sustained by groundnuts in the north, cocoa in the west and palm oil in the east.

“But unfortunately, the country was disabled when we ran into the civil war with over one million people killed,” he said.Also speaking, Adebanjo said the call for restructuring was not a political tool as most Nigerians have been deceived to believe the real concerns for the unity of Nigeria.

He said the country’s unity was negotiated in 1954, which led to the 1954 constitution, whereby each region had its own separate constitution.Expanding on the theme: Niger Delta Next Decade: Away From Oil, Away With Oil, an environmentalist and lecturer at the Lagos State University, Prof. Dauphin Moro, drew a correlation between restructuring and the remediation of the depleted and devastated Niger Delta environment.

Speaking earlier, the Executive Director of National Point, Ibiba Don Pedro said the newspaper was established in the midst of turmoil over the non-elections in 2007 in Rivers State by a group of public interest journalists to highlight the endless hedonism that characterisised political life in the Niger Delta and Nigeria even today.

“The call for restructuring was not in the blight tone of politicians, who will soon move on to another pet issue or slogan but to return the country to true federalism, which is the only system that recognises our diversity and the reality that no part of the country is conquered territory or playground for lazy persons living a lie,” she added.

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