The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, has said there will not be meaningful progress in the country except there is restructuring.
The monarch said this at the unveiling of a book, ‘I Love Nigeria My Country’, in Lagos on Thursday.
The event also witnessed the unveiling of the translation of Nigeria’s Constitution to Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo languages.
The monarch said, “Nigeria enjoyed her best years when we were practising the regional system of government. What we currently practice can be likened to a unitary system of government; it is not federalism, except we are deceiving ourselves.
“Unless we restructure the country, we will not have meaningful progress.”
He commended the author for translating the constitution, saying his contribution would help many Nigerians understand the document.
“This is an opportunity for Nigerians to read and understand the constitution, and decide if it is working. Unfortunately, literary giants are not celebrated in this part of the world. We need to praise this young man for this feat,” Oba Adeyemi added.
The author, Mr Adeyemi Ajayi, said the translation of the constitution into indigenous languages was a project, which had scaled all odds before finally becoming a reality.
He stated, “Today marks a new movement of peace and unity among all our people and patriots, who are ready to make a positive change in our nation. Nigeria is blessed with a lot of potential, but it is time to rewrite history. This is the time to start converting the potential to reality.
“We must start this movement from a document that binds us together as a country; that is, the constitution, in order to build the nation of our dreams. Many have said so much about the constitution, but we beg to differ, because according to our research, we find out that a good percentage of Nigerians do not even know the constitution and have never read it. This is the fundamental of our existence as a country.”
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