A Chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara, Mr AbdulRahoof Bello, has identified restructuring as the only panacea to secessionist agitations and insecurity currently facing the country.

Bello made the call on Wednesday in Ilorin while delivering a paper at a weekly ‘Political Dialogue,’ organised by Nation’s Leadership Institute, Ilorin.

The politician spoke on the topic: “Vision, Mission and Ethics in Democracy: The Nigerian experience.”

The political dialogue/training for emerging political leaders in Kwara was organised by President of the institute, Chief Iyiola Oyedepo.

Bello, a Political Science lecturer at National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), said that restructuring would address various problems bedeviling the country.

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He particularly called for the review of the 45 items on the exclusive legislative list in the 1999 Constitution, whereby 41 would be given to states, with the remaining four left for the Federal Government.

Bello added that more powers should be devolved to states, while they should be allowed to manage the resources in their respective states and pay royalty to the central government.

“States should be given more powers, while most of the items on the exclusive list should be ceded to them. They should be allowed to manage the resources in their states.

“The exclusive legislative list should be reviewed to give less power to the central authority.

“Out of the more than 45 items on the exclusive list, the central government should have only four, including defence, monetary regulation, foreign affairs,” he said.

According to him, the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended) should be further amended to give Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) power to disqualify candidates if fresh evidence was found against them, even after their names had been cleared.

This, he said would curb unruly behaviours among candidates and political parties, especially during elections.

Bello said that the present political parties in the country lacked clear-cut ideologies and manifestoes, as was the case in the First and Second Republics.

The compass of any group or political organisation is ideology, because it is the vision and mission of such group or political organisation. It represents what it stands for, what it wants to do and how it will do it.

“In the first and second republics in Nigeria, we know that the major political parties were ideologically-based.

“If you are a progressive, you know the party to join; if you are a radical, you know the party to join and if you are a conservative, you know the party to team up with.

“There’s no political prostitution where there is ideology.

“Unfortunately under the current political dispensation, ideology has taken flight from the Nigerian political space,” he said.

I don’t see any of the political parties as ideologically- oriented. I can’t see much difference between the two major political parties in Nigeria,” Bello added.

More than 50 people were selected from all the 16 local government areas of the state for the political dialogue/training that would last for four months.