The lawmaker, who frowned at the approach adopted by some groups to press home their demands, said the unity and stability of the country could not be compromised.
The Majority Leader, House of Representatives, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila (Lagos-APC), says the house will address the calls for the restructuring of the country.
Gbajabiamila made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
The lawmaker, who frowned at the approach adopted by some groups to press home their demands, said the unity and stability of the country could not be compromised.
“This is a matter the house will address very soon and we are all concerned and we cannot bury our heads in the sand (and pretend nothing is going on around us) like the proverbial ostrich (would do).
“The National Assembly as an institution has a role to play on the issue of whether you want to call it restructuring or reengineering – however you want to describe it.
“And very soon national assembly will come up with a position.
“We are discussing it, we are talking with stakeholders behind the scenes and it will be tabled at some point hopefully before we go for another break,’’ Gbajabiamila said.
Meanwhile, Rep. Uchechukwu Nam-Obi (Rivers-PDP) has condemned the idea of secession that any part of the country might be considering.
According to him, a house divided against itself cannot stand.
He, however, called for true federalism, saying that equity and justice were the panacea to the agitation in various quarters.
Federalism is the mixed or compound mode of government, combining a general government (the central or ‘federal’ government) with regional governments (provincial, state, cantonal, territorial or other sub-unit governments) in a single political system.
Its distinctive feature, exemplified in the founding example of modern federalism of the United States of America under the Constitution of 1787, is a relationship of parity between the two levels of government established.
It can thus be defined as a form of government in which there is a division of powers between two levels of government of equal status.
Nigerian federalism began in 1954 under the tutelage of the British colonial authorities.
The founding fathers of the country opted for federalism because of their belief that federal states have the intrinsic structural and institutional capacity to accommodate diversity.
The multifaceted differences that exist among the peoples of Nigeria, as well as the gargantuan size of the country, made the choice of federalism a necessity.
However, the problems inherent in amalgamating myriad different peoples and regions continue to provoke debate and controversy, which are often directed at the country’s federal system.
“The federating units must be happy and the happiness must start with justice, happiness and equity.
“Anybody who thinks Nigeria is a contraption will have to think again.
“We have had talks, we have had talk shows and all of that, about the implementation because these things will keep coming up again and again if we do not address them and we need to address them within the ambit of the law.
“We don’t have to run away from restructuring, but we have to understand what it really means.
“Restructuring is the way to go for Nigeria.
“What we want is to live in such a way that we have respect for one another and in such a way that there is no domination by one group.
“We need to have mutual respect and we need to sit down and say this is a Nigeria we need to bequeath to our children,’’ the lawmaker said. (NAN)
