A former Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Affiliation, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), on Wednesday stated former President Olusegun Obasanjo virtually slapped him for recommending the modification of the 1999 Structure when Obasanjo was the incumbent President.
stated Olanipekun whereas delivering the convocation lecture of the Olabisi Onabanjo College, In the past-Iwoye, Ogun State.
The theme of the lecture was: “Mass exodus of human capital in Nigeria: An anatomical evaluation of its causes and penalties.”
Olanipekun, who described the 1999 Structure as a faux doc, stated it was liable for the myriad of issues plaguing the nation.
“Each governor now goes to Abuja day by day and who’re they going to go to, administrators, deputy administrators. Is that this federalism?
“We’d like a structure with a human face. I’m a lawyer, however we’re fooling ourselves; our Structure is faux and I’ve stated this time and time once more, however as attorneys you’ll then ask us, if we are saying the Structure is faux, why are we working towards it?
“Legal professionals and judges apply the legislation as it’s, and never the legislation accurately; so we apply the legislation as we’ve it now and we’ve known as for an modification to the structure, let's revise it. As President of the NBA, I led a delegation from the affiliation to President Obasanjo in 2022; he virtually hit me in a field.
“I’m right here in Ogun State and I say this, he’s nonetheless alive, he stated, 'No, you can’t change it'. I stated, 'Mr. President, let's take this chance to do this. We additionally attraction to the present rulers, to our President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, that now’s the time to restructure this nation. If we don't do it, these kids we’ve overseas could not return house, they received't come right here.”
Olanipekun stated the present state of affairs within the nation is so horrifying that these dwelling overseas would by no means come to Nigeria.
He stated: 'we dwell in harmful and tough instances; our Obas in Yorubaland are being killed, slaughtered like chickens. The Olufon of Ifon had been slaughtered alongside the highway about three years in the past; two days in the past, two Obas, certainly one of them was an Affiliate Professor on the Federal College of Know-how, Akure, had been massacred in Ekiti.
“For many who are there (overseas), once they hear the information, will they wish to come house? They ask the place ought to I’m going? Nobody needs to come back and die, nobody needs to die younger, however our Obas even die within the gutters.
“Unemployment, dangerous financial system, frustration, man's inhumanity to man, a difficult federation which we’ve described as federalism, we run a unitary authorities, I’m a product of federalism. I used to be educated within the Oud-West area, we had been happy with that, in contrast to what we’ve at this time.
“We’d like a system the place these kids, once they go away college, are given a job and in the event that they don't get one, the state ought to deal with them. You may't simply say: allow them to go and deal with themselves. Sure, they need to deal with themselves, however they need to create the situations for that.”
