The former Governor of Ekiti State and Visiting Professor at King’s College, University of London, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has stated that restructuring should focus less on redrawing the map of Nigeria and more on building an efficient governance system capable of delivering the greatest good to the greatest number of people.
Fayemi was the Guest Speaker on Thursday at the 80th birthday celebration of elder statesman and diplomat Yemi Farounbi, held at the Law Hub Hall, Ring Road, Ibadan, the state capital.
Speaking on the theme, “The Future and the Challenges of the Nigerian State,” Fayemi acknowledged that most of the challenges facing the nation today could not have been envisaged in 1999.
However, he asserted that these challenges should be seen as opportunities to test the nation’s governance system and its capacity to respond to issues of national coexistence.
He said, despite the challenges facing the nation, it is important to remember that nation-building is a slow and dynamic process. Building a better country involves experimentation and learning, trial and error, setting and resetting, and remaking, not unmaking.
He added, “This is why the operative framework of any nation is never intended as a divinely inspired scripture.”
Fayemi said, “In my view, restructuring should be less about redrawing the map of Nigeria and more about building an efficient governance system capable of delivering the greatest good to the greatest number of our people.
“For us to constructively confront these issues, we must first conquer the demon of mutual suspicion and distrust that has poisoned our politics and undermined our ability to achieve the necessary consensus. This is crucial to moving confidently towards our destiny as a great nation.”
He added, “We have seen that demon of suspicion rear its ugly head again in the ongoing debate about tax reforms. If we overcome this, we would have removed the major obstacle to forging a great nation out of this colonial creation, showing the world that we are finally ready to embrace our true destiny as the hope of all black people everywhere.
“The path to nation-building is peace, the path to peace is justice, and the path to justice is equity and inclusion,” he continued. “The generation wanting to take over from the present leaders are products of a different historical experience. Because they can take democracy for granted, it is difficult for them to see democracy as an end in itself. What really matters to them is what democracy can do for them, how it can work for them, and how it can help facilitate their dreams. Nurtured amid some of the most rapid transformations in human history, they are less fearful of change and experimentation. If it is not working, they want it fixed.”
In attendance were former Minister of Education and Chairman of the occasion, Prof Tunde Adeniran; Baale Taiye Ayorinde; Chairman of Ibadan Discourse Group, Chief Bisi Adesola; ace broadcaster Dr Yanju Adegbite; Edmund Obilo, and other dignitaries.