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Less than a year to the 2019 general elections, Nigerians, especially those from the southern part of the country, have been charged not to vote into power any presidential candidate that does not support restructuring.
According to Elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, without restructuring, southerners would find it difficult to survive in the entity called Nigeria, especially as their God given resources are used to develop other parts of the country, leaving their region devastated.
Chief Clark who spoke to news men at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa last week, at the heels of the just concluded mega rally in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, noted that the purpose of the rally which was attended by the people of the South -South, South-East, South-West and the Middle Belt was to educate the grassroots on what restructuring is all about and how to achieve it.
“It was meant to educate our people that restructuring will better our lives, change our mode of life, make us first class citizens like our other colleagues from other parts of the country and give us the opportunity to harness our God given resources which today are being extracted by people from other parts of Nigeria, who after harnessing our resources give us stipends and expect us to be grateful to them” he said.
The elder statesman recalled that in the first republic, owners of resources used them to develop their areas, lamenting that what is obtainable now is quite different as the south that produces the oil that takes care of the entire nation is left under developed and devastated with the attendant suffering due to the destruction of its environment.
He added that then the north survived with ground nut pyramid, but regretted that they have abandoned agriculture to pursue oil, stressing that the most painful aspect of it is that the north gets more allocation than the owners of the resources since they have more local government areas.
Clark however hinted that after the Yenagoa mega rally, similar rallies would take place in the South East, Makurdi in Benue State and probably a national one at Abuja before the election, reiterating that any presidential candidate who does not support restructuring will not win elections in 2019.
