Adeboye: Nigeria may break up if not restructured

Enoch Adeboye, general overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), says the country may break up if it is not restructured.

Speaking at a symposium with the theme, ‘Where will Nigeria be in 2060’, on Saturday, Adeboye said Nigeria should develop a system that is unique to it.

The symposium was to commemorate Nigeria’s 60th independence anniversary.

The pastor said Nigeria should continue to attempt different forms of government until it finds one that works for it.

“Why can’t we have a system of government that is 100 percent Nigerian, unique to us? For example, we started on with the British system of government, somewhere along the line, we moved over to the American system of government,” the cleric said.

“Can’t we have a combination of both and see whether it could help us solve our problems because in mathematics if you want to solve a problem, you try what we call real analysis, then if it doesn’t work, then you move on to complex analysis and see whether that will help you.

“If that fails, you move on to vector analysis and so on. I believe that we might want to look at the problems of Nigeria in a slightly different manner. Some people feel that all our problems will be over if Nigeria should break up.

“Why can’t we have a system of government that will create what I will call the United States of Nigeria? Let me explain. We all know that we must restructure. It is either we restructure or we break, you don’t have to be a prophet to know that one. That is certain – restructure or we break up.

“Now, we don’t want to break up, God forbid. In restructuring, why don’t we have a Nigerian kind of democracy? At the federal level, why don’t we have a president and a prime minister?”

Adeboye also said the place of traditional rulers should not be expunged from society.

“Go to any town in Nigeria, everybody in the town knows the paramount ruler in the town and they respect him (but) many of them don’t even know the name of the chairman of their local government,” he said.

“The traditional rulers are the actual landlords, they control the respect of their people. Their people will listen to them much more, I am sorry to say, than they will listen to some politicians.”