Nigeria’ll break in 25 years except…, Akintola warns

A legal practitioner, Chief Niyi Akintola, has reverberated calls for restructuring of the current structure of the country in line with true federalism, warning that the country would break in the next 25 years, if it continued with the current structure.

Akintola, delivering the guest lecture at an event to mark the 15th anniversary of the Premier 93.5 fm, Ibadan, on Thursday, added that the over-centralisation of powers at the executive level, bred corruption.

He asserted that the powers of the legislature and judiciary had been eroded by the executive at all levels of government.

Bemoaning that Nigeria as a nation was yet to emerge, he decried hegemony, social injustice, anti-intellectualism and unbalanced structure of the country as the bane of real development of the country.

He urged President Muhammadu Buhari to adopt a more holistic and pragmatic approach to fighting corruption, noting that Buhari was fighting so many things at the same time, including fighting the three arms of government.

“If we continue with the current structure, Nigeria will break in the next 25 years, so, we must restructure in line with true federalism. We have over-centralised everything whereby the executive is seen as the government and we neglect the legislature and the judiciary. Over centralisation of everything breeds corruption.

Speaking on the theme: “Nigeria 1960 Till Date, Our Dreams, What is it? Where is it?”, Akintola lamented the failure of the ruling class to key into the vision of leaders of the first republic to include, individual freedom under the law, equality of opportunity for all, dispensation of justice to all, fair play and honesty.

He wondered if today’s leaders had a sense of history evident in committing same mistakes of the past, while villains of yesterday were heroes of today.

Director, Institute of Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ibadan, Professor Olawale Albert, who chaired the occasion, posited that the country lacked a responsible leadership to weld the different ethnicities and groups.

Zonal Director, Premier FM, Mr Oyetunji Ogunwale, prayed for holistic measures by government at all levels to address the nation’s challenges.