Former National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, on Thursday said calls for the restructuring of Nigeria is an indication of bad governance.
The former INEC boss stated this at the 18th Daily Trust Dialogue with the theme: ‘Restructuring in Nigeria: Why? How? When?’
“After a critical evaluation of the benefits versus the costs of each of these notions of restructuring, I believe that the starting point of desirable and serious, even realistic, restructuring is equitable redistribution of power and resources from the Federal Government to the sub-national governments,” Jega said.
The former INEC chairman, however, said that dismantling the current structure and going back to the pre-1966 regional structure, the 12 states of 1976/77 or making use of six geo-political regions are unrealistic, The Punch reports.
He stated, “The social and political costs of such an undertaking would by far outweigh the benefits. In many fundamental respects, creation of states has gone a long way to mitigate real and imagined/perceived marginalisation of minorities.”