Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa

Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, on Monday, held a closed door meeting with elder statesman and former Vice Chancellor of Ahmedu Bello University, Zaria, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, in Abuja, on the need to restructure Nigeria.

Dickson has been leading the charge on the need to restructure the country before the 2019 elections, and he has been holding sessions with critical stakeholders across the country

A statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Francis Ottah Agbo, quoted Dickson as saying only restructuring, fiscal federalism, state police and devolution of powers from the centre to the federating units will guarantee fairness, peace and stability of Nigeria.

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Dickson, while thanking the elder statesman for his long years of service to the country, called on Abdullahi to lend his moral voice to the clamour for restructuring.

He said: “I thank you for your service to our country. I’ve been a silent admirer of your courage and leadership style. As you know, I’ve been consulting widely on the issue of restructuring. I believe we need to enthrone devolution of power from the centre to the federating units and return the country to fiscal federalism. Some people have their misgivings on restructuring, but, we must keep consulting, talking and disagreeing to agree to make the country work. Restructuring is not meant to make Nigeria perfect. After all, no country in the world is perfect. All we want to achieve with restructuring is to make the country workable. Nigeria, as it is today, is not working, and we have a duty to make it work.”

In his response, Abdullahi thanked the governor for leading the charge on restructuring and promised to work with like-minds like Dickson, to return Nigeria to “true federalism.” He averred that the country is in difficult times, but expressed optimism that if all hands are on deck, Nigeria will work again and be placed on the path of peace and progress.

Abdullahi said he has identified the governor as one of the few courageous political leaders with the requisite network, experience, wisdom and sagacity to engender positive change in the country.