Atiku urges leaders to come together to negotiate Nigeria’s future now

FORMER Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has said for the greater good of Nigeria, its current generation of leaders should come together to negotiate and make compromises for the future of the country, berating those fanning the ember of discord.

Atiku, who has consistently called for the restructuring of the country, cautioned that sponsoring “youth groups to issue provocative statements and cause trouble is not a substitute for reasoned arguments as to the better path to the future.”
Atiku spoke in a lecture at the third policy monitoring dialogue series of national unity, integration and devolution of power/restructuring organised by the Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development, held in Abuja.

“We must be open-minded as we debate issues of restructuring and as we approach negotiations on it. Sponsoring so-called youth groups to issue provocative statements and cause trouble is not a substitute for reasoned arguments as to the better path to the future.

“This country was built originally out of negotiations by sectional groups and leaders. I believe that our generation is capable of negotiations and compromises for the greater good of our country and our peoples,” he said.
The chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said restructuring would strengthen national cohesion and enhance good governance through the review of the division of powers and responsibilities between the central government and the federating units.
“Restructuring will promote healthy competition among our federating units, which will encourage them to diversify their revenue sources. Restructuring will ensure greater fairness and a perception of same among our constituent parts.
“Beyond these, there is also another huge economic imperative for us to restructure: oil, which underlined and underwrote our excessive centralisation and fragmentation into numerous unviable states, and which has been at the centre of much of our squabble, seems to have reached its peak as source of revenues for our country.
“And even if its contribution to our revenues were to remain at current levels in the long term, it still spells trouble for our economy and the unsustainable structure which it has supported for nearly 50 years.
“The states or zones of the country that are most dependent on oil revenues have a greater urgency to decouple themselves from that dependency now that there is still some oil revenue to assist them in the transition. That window may not remain open for a long time, which may then make the inevitable transition much more painful and chaotic.