Restructuring the Nigerian State: Issues, Challenges and Prospects
Publication Date: 21/04/2020
Author(s): Deinibiteim Monimah Harry.
Volume/Issue: Volume 3 , Issue 1 (2020)
Abstract:
The restructuring debate is an ongoing one in the country, especially in the past ten years. Available evidence shows that restructuring is an ideology which time is overdue in Nigeria today. This paper is a discourse on the argument for and against restructuring in Nigeria and the desirability of the process as well as the likely benefits that would be derived when the country is properly restructured. The main objective of this paper is to show that Nigeria stands to benefit immensely when it is properly and honestly restructured. The work reveals the concept restructuring had been variously construed to meaning true federalism, fiscal federalism, devolution of power and resource control. Also, restructuring have the ability to bring about massive national development through constitutional amendment, reduction in power contestation and extravagancy of public office holders, provision of security at the different levels of governance, etc. Thus, the paper recommends that relevant institutions of the state, particularly the executive and legislative arms, should put plans in motion to effect restructuring, political elites from across the nation should bury their ethnic and regional interests and pursue restructuring for the overall good of the country and that citizens should take their destiny in their hands and fight for restructuring to achieve national development.
