Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Shehu Garba, has said that economic development to provide food for the citizen should be the utmost concern of Nigerians rather than the clamour for restructuring that is being heard across the country.
Malam Garba said this while receiving some Northern clerics who did a rally to support President Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigeria military in their fight against insurgency in the country.
The SSA said that he has been receiving several communiques and resolutions on daily basis from different groups calling for restructuring of the country and constitution review.
He noted that what the country is in need of now is peace and tranquillity so that its citizen can go about with their businesses and trade.
He also added that the country is also in need of a better economy, so that its citizen can be able to feed very well, not restructuring or constitution review.
“Every day, we read one communique or resolution from one group or the other, asking government to review the constitution and restructure. First of all, we need peace in Nigeria. Without peace, there will not be development or progress. Ordinary Nigerians want peace so that they can go about their lawful activities.
“Ordinary Nigerians want food to eat. It is not constitutional review and restructuring that will put food on the table. It is a better economy and this is what the president is doing, trying to ensure that the resources in the country are very well managed.”
But Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba group, disagrees with the view of Garba, stressing that restructuring is the key to the problems of Nigeria and that the Presidency lack foresight of the issue on ground.
Spokesman of the group, Yinka Odumakin, said restructuring will ensure that food is guaranteed for the citizen and the economy base of the country would generate from N6trillion to N50trillion per annum from the oil and gas sector.
Odumakin describe the view of the Presidency as “the palpable level of ignorance at the highest level of governance in the country.
“A situation where a few people in the past have been taking everything and pocketing our resources and sharing among themselves is over now. The president will make sure that whatever is available to the people of this country goes around the country and is evenly distributed.” he said.
