Osinbajo Urges States to Go to Court over Restructuring

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday in Ibadan, Oyo State, said restructuring of the country can be achieved through litigation as states are free to employ litigation instead of waiting endlessly for constitutional mean.

He also said no reasonable Nigerian would be against restructuring, stating that the focus should be on what the restructuring should look like, and not just agitations for restructuring.

Osinbajo, while speaking as Chairman of the Bisi Akande Colloquium with the theme: ‘Nigeria: Achieving National Unity Through Peaceful Restructuring’ to mark the 80th birthday celebration of the former Governor of Osun State, Chief Bisi Akande, faulted the presidential candidate of the People Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, who promises to restructure Nigeria within six months if elected president.

Present at the event were the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu; governors Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Nasiru El-rufai (Kaduna), Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo), Gboyega Oyetola (Osun), deputy governor of Lagos State, Idiat Oluranti Adebule, and Senator Biyi Durojaye.

Others are former Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani; Secretary of the APC Committee on Restructuring, Senator Olu Adetunmbi, and Prof. Adigun Agbaje of the Political Science Department of the University of Ibadan, who were the discussants, while Dr. Usman Bugaje was the moderator at the colloquium.

Also present at the event were the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Muhammed; Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole; former Governor of Ekiti state, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo; former Governor of Ogun state, Chief Olusegun Osoba, and former Governor of Osun State, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola.

The vice president, who said Atiku and the PDP government vehemently opposed restructuring when the former Governor of Lagos State, Tinubu, introduced it, but was agitating for fiscal federalism, urged Nigerians to be vigilant and not allow the party to come back to power “as it has not changed its spots.”

Osinbajo, who also outlined the processes involved in restructuring a country, said he, as part of the Lagos State history between 1999 and 2003, used  legal means to achieve creation of more Local Council Development Areas (LCDA) in the state, adding that “therefore, such court process could be adopted if truly Nigerians want restructuring.”

He said: "The government of Lagos State demonstrated that it is positive to have restructuring and devolution of power but by the process of litigation. As of 1999, when I first had encounter with Tinubu, he made it clear to me that one of his most important objectives was for us to pursue fiscal federalism and devolution of power to our state.

"He wanted me to study it and know how to do it. We spent a lot of time and resources to look into how we could do it. We know that going through the National Assembly is just a waste of time. We then decided to use the process of litigation. As a matter of fact, we went to the Supreme Court in 12 different times on what we can describe as restructuring. The federal government at that time off course opposed every such move on our part. Today, our dear presidential candidate of the PDP says he is an expert in restructuring but in those years, when we were fighting for restructuring, he opposed every steps we took.