The Council of Yoruba Elders, CYE, has lent its voice to those calling for a restructuring.

 

 

They called on President Bola Tinubu to restructure the country in a way that fosters overall development of the country and its people.

 

 

Their action, they said is beasrd in the worsening socio-economic and political challenges besetting the country.

 

 

The council also declared that the challenges facing the country, at the moment, were grinding it to a halt, adding that nothing is working.

 

 

It stated this in a press statement titled “The Practical Beginning of the Journey to the Restructuring of Nigeria” which was signed by its secretary-general, Dr Victor Taiwo, at the weekend.

 

The council observed that “Nigeria’s general structures have collapsed like a pack of cards. The country is fast being driven to a cul-de-sac, a grand halt. Today nothing is practically working in Nigeria.

 

“The citizens are currently battling with the acute menace of starvation, hyper-inflation, naira currency floating, unemployment, collapse of industries, education coma, health jaundice, electricity flight, kidnapping, ritual killings, armed robbery, insecurity and general poverty in the land. And come to think of it, there seems to be no hope in the horizon.”

 

 

It also pointed out that the “crooked, knock-kneed structure of this country was built on a foundation made of quicksand,” adding that most leaders and politicians in the country are “strange bedfellows of sharply incompatible traits whose cohesion can never be moulded right by all the wisdom and forces in the world. It is just too peculiar.”

 

 

The council also berated President Bola Tinubu for directing the removal of petrol subsidy years after he assembled economic experts who warned that doing same would impoverish the citizenry and lead to a disturbing hike in cost of livelihood as being witnessed today.

 

 

To address the growing challenges, the CYE urged the country to set out modalities of two sets of restructuring: national restructuring and internal restructuring.

 

 

On national restructuring, it said there was the need to galvanise “people from the six geo-political zones of the country, put in place a national outfit to organise an independent national conference, excavate the 2014 CONFAB report and thoroughly study the content to see if it can guarantee our further working relationship in the country or else we fashion out another feasibility study.”

 

 

It, however, noted that internal restructuring should be carried by the Yoruba in line with the RBR (Restructuring Before Restructuring) Agenda.

 

The council also called for the re-definition of the Western or Yoruba region to include Kwara, Kogi, Edo and Delta States, arguing that the “first and foremost exercise of the restructuring agenda be it national or internal is to do the proper re-delineation of the geography of Yorubaland.