Oodua Peoples Union European chapter adds its voice to calls for restructuring of Nigeria

MEMBERS of the European chapter of the Oodua Peoples Union (Opu) have joined calls for the restructuring of Nigeria pointing out that running the country along regional lines will enhance economic growth and boost development.

 

Over recent months, calls for the restructuring of Nigeria have grown, with community groups across the country calling a dismantling of the existing unitary structure. Following a recent third European summit in Gothenburg, Sweden, the Opu added its voice to these calls, saying restructuring would enhance the development of the country and rescue Nigeria from an imminent crash.

 

Among decisions made by the Opu at the summit, it said it supports the call for restructuring and devolution of power and wants and supports calls that Nigeria be structured via regional lines. While it called on Yorubas in diaspora to be evangelists of the culture and ensure that the interest of the Yoruba nation is protected at all times, the body commended the collaboration of its sister body, the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) with the Nigeria Police Force to flush the dreaded Badoo cultist group out of Ikorodu in Lagos state.

 

Opu convener Otunba Ganiyu Adams, said: “No doubt, Opu has provided a veritable platform for the Oodua descendants living far away from their homeland to constantly interact on issues of common interest, especially as it affects the Yoruba race in particular and the country, Nigeria in general. It is a thing of joy for me to bear witness today, to the tremendous progress that Opu as a body, has witnessed globally, as it now operates effectively in 78 countries of the world.”

 

He, however, observed that even as Opu Europe celebrates its success so far, it is unfortunate that Nigerians cannot do same back home where things have seriously retrogressed. Otunba Adams added that his consolation was that the efforts of everyone there, if offered in unison, can salvage the country from an imminent crash.

 

He thus canvassed for the adoption of mutual understanding and compromise strategies used by the Swedish to accomplish the political and economic progress being witnessed in their democracy. In his submission, Otunba Adams added that when the Swedish Social Democratic Party came into power in 1932, its leaders introduced a new political decision-making process, which later became known as the Swedish model.

 

 Otunba Adams added: “There is no gainsaying that Nigeria has what it takes to be a welfare state in its real sense with her natural endowments but she must take a cue from Sweden and adopt the main ingredients of her body polity. The absence of this mutual understanding and compromise in Nigeria has remained its albatross.

 

"It is my candid opinion that only if we had been able to factor and accommodate these two ingredients into our governing system like in Sweden, there wouldn’t have been reason for the ear itching call for the breakup of Nigeria as we are witnessing at the moment."

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