Mallam El Rufai Exposes His Apprehension Over Restructure of Nigeria

During the Youth Consultation organized by the APC Committee on True Federalism at Abuja, Mallam Nasir El Rufai made some interesting points which he referred to as 'The Political Reality' of Nigeria.

First, he stated that the Niger Delta people cannot have a 100% resource control because that will not be in the interest of Nigeria. The oil money must be shared by all of Nigeria. According to him, this is the political reality that cannot be altered.

Second, in a response to the call for North and South to have equal states and LGAs bya youth group, he stated that the North and South cannot have equal state status as doing so would amount to injustice on the North. According to his argument, you cannot treat unequals as equals and equals as unequals. If I got his explanations right, he meant that since the North has more land mass and population than the South, it cannot have equal number of states with the South. According to El Rufai. This is another political reality.

Third, Nigeria cannot be restructured without the approval and suppprt of the North. Therefore any proposal that must succeed must guarantee the interest of the North. I think he referred to the North as the big brother in Nigeria, I am not sure what he meant by that. Again, El Rufai, insists that this is another political reality.

Fourth, in response to a youth group proposal for the scrapping of the Senate (our group Restructure Nigeria also proposed that we adopt a parliamentary system to handle legislative and executive duties), El Rufai made it clear that this is not possible because the Senate will certainly not vote in support of scrapping itself. Again, he said, this is the political reality.

Fifth, El Rufai reminded us that to amend the constitution, we will need 2/3 of NASS and 21 state house of Assembly. Whatever proposal that threatens these groups will never fly because they cannot go against their own interest. The other option to restructure will have to be a coup which we know is not easy to come. Again, this is the political reality.

Sixth, he insists that young people should hustle, make money and join politics (he admits that you cannot join politics without money) if they want to effect their opinions on the polity. Another political reality. He insists that they the old guys will continue to remain in politics as that is also the political reality.

In summary, if those advocating for restructuring do not consider the interest of the status quo (existing institutions and regional interests), they will never get restructuring.

The political reality is that whether you like it or not, whether it favors you or not, the existing political structure and it's various lopsidedness is our reality and we must recognize this as such in trying to agitate for restructuring.

Again, in the opinion of Mallam Nasir El Rufai, these are the political realities of Nigeria.
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