Restructuring promises deceptive – Chime

Mr Sullivan Chime, a former governor in Enugu state, has warned that it was deceitful for anyone to promise to restructure the country in six months and cautioned against falling prey to the antics of restructuring.

Chime told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Enugu that candidates promising to restructure Nigeria in the presidential polls were not truthful.

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, was reported to have promised to start the restructuring of the country from May 29 if he is elected.

Abubakar was also reported to have said that about 80 per cent of the restructuring of the country would be completed within the first six months of his administration.

However, Chime described the statements as a `deceit’ aimed at hoodwinking Nigerians.

The former governor said that in as much as he was not against restructuring of the country, it would not come easily.

He said that restructuring of any nation was a long term project and would never be achieved by any single individual.

He said that the clarification had become imperative as many people from parts of the country were beginning to fall for the bait.

“Let no one deceive you on this because restructuring of this country is beyond what the president can do alone. It takes a very long time to achieve that.

“Nothing can be as deceitful as that and you cannot be talking about restructuring without constitutional amendment,” he said.

Chime, who is a constitutional lawyer said that at the moment there was no legal framework that would support the clamour to restructure the country as the Nigerian Constitution did not recognise any form of referendum.

The former governor said that for the current structure of the country to be tinkered, it must be subjected to a well-defined referendum.

“As we speak there is no legal framework to guide us to the change of let us say a parliamentary system of government or any other one.

“It will take not less than 15 years for the country to be so restructured in the true sense of the word,” he said.

Chime also said that those who were advocating for the restructuring of the country should convince Nigerians on why the current structure should be altered.

“They should convince us why it is better than what we have now,” he said.

He said that President Muhammadu Buhari had shown enough commitment in leading Nigeria out of the woods and needed to be encouraged to continue his good works.

“Buhari is the best thing to happen to Nigeria now because he brought us back to what Nigeria used to be. This is not about sentiments,” he said.

The former governor condemned what he described as `politics of segregation or ethnicity’ saying that it had affected governance of the country.

Chime however, called on Nigerians to reject those that want to drag the country back to the dark days.