Iba Gani Adams, the Aare Onakakanfo of Yoruba land, cautioned Tuesday that if Nigeria does not reform the country to reduce the level of escalating insecurity, it is sitting on a keg of gunpowder.
Speaking in Osogbo, Osun State, at the Oodua People's Congress, OPC, 2022 leadership retreat, Adams said that Nigeria must be reorganised to better suit its ethnically and linguistically diverse population.
In order to guide the nation toward progress and prosperity, he said, the political elite must reinvent the 1960 and 1963 constitutions.
Generalissimo of Yorubaland said: “One of the reasons we are having insecurity challenge is because we have refused to use a structure that fits our population, our strength as a nation and our diversity. We are talking about 254 ethnic nationalities and about 70 languages. In a country like that, you can’t run just federal police and think the country will be properly policed.
“In my opinion, we should go back to the basic, the 1960 constitution that we used to get independence, which we agree together to use to build the country. We can also look at the 1963 constitution, which provides for three layers of Police. Look at Amotekun, for instance, it cannot wield sophisticated weapons, while the criminal they are combating wields so many of such weapons.
“If the Federal Government cares about the security of lives and property of its citizens, we must restructure the security architecture to reflect multi-layer policing. The lawmakers that jettisoned the issue of state police during the constitutional review are now running from the federal capital that housed the seat of the parliament due to fear of their security.
“If Nigeria does not act fast to restructure the country back to regionalism, it may break in two years, because the way it is going, it is becoming unbearable for the people. Traditional rulers are kidnapped and killed across the country, then ordinary residents are no longer safe.
“If proper security architecture is put in place, then other things will fall in place. You cannot risk killing public institutions like schools and hospitals; this may lead to an uprising which may be worse than what was witnessed in Sri Lanka. Something urgently must be done to redeem the country’s image before the 2023 elections.”
On Amotekun bearing arms, he said: “Amotekun must bear sophisticated weapon to be able to tackle insecurity to restore confidence in the security structure. If the security outfit is not bearing a weapon, it may be heading for failure which does not reflect good leadership on the part of the Federal Government.
“The Federal Government must give support to Amotekun to bear weapon so that Nigerians can believe again that their security is adequately prioritised by government.
“If Amotekun succeeds, it will redeem the image of the country globally and if it fails, the country’s image will be greatly battered.”