 Welcome to The Advocate, where topical issues are discussed in a no-holds-barred manner. In other words, we call a spade by its name. Today my Advocacy is based on the whole clamor for restructuring. A good plan or a plot. Kingsley is here to clarify the difference between a leader and a ruler. Yemi, who joins us for the first time, is taking us on music lessons today as he focuses on the impact of music on the human mind and body. According to Kurt Cobain, the duty of youth is to challenge corruption and Kemak is here to point out the strength of the African and Nigerian youth. Sit back, your panelists are here to present your Sunday dose of provoking thoughts with no-holds-barred after this break. Restructuring. A plan or a plot. Pre-election in Nigeria, always a word is picked and beaten up to whip up sentiment and create an electoral nirvana that is void of practicality. This is to say the word has spaces. But what exactly does it mean? Or do we share the same definition of the word when we use it in different contexts? The word structure means a lot to a different lot of people. I would first begin with our definitions of the words based on our vocations in life or politics. To a common man, this will be used from a point of separation of powers from the centre, though already provided by the constitution and abused by political party vehicles. To deny governance to the people. I would add that this juncture, the common man gets it but his political inexperience would not allow him clamor for this take. For example, the issue of state policing. We are all aware any separation of power must mean all tiers of governance and arms of governance being allowed to function. On matters like this, the president is mobbed in bare parlor discussions and online keeper terrorists, meanwhile these powers to enact such laws is in the powers of the rather lackadiscount national assembly whom instead of primarily focusing on bill amendments and oversight of the executive are yet to be weaned off constituency project feeding bottles. Now we move to the governance. As the free hand to handle state natural resources without influence of the federal government, while these may seem noble it can be done till the emperors of state stop the organised kidnap of a tier of government which is the local government. The state governments confiscate their financial resources. It's like asking nicely for a cookie while your hand is still in the cookie jar. Now we'll look at the federal. This level of governments is restructuring as a harm to its powerful dominance like a system of control forgetting that the real power is vested in economic growth and true democracy can only thrive while powers are being devolved properly. It understands the greed of state governors and the federal has used this to the advantage and uses the kidnap of the LG by states to amtwist the state governments for their resources. In times of old people ran nations for the matter of sovereignty and power but moving towards the modern times the only advancement afforded a country is when it is run like a business and every part is contributing to a planned quota of goods. Well back to the perspectives on the world that has become champion to the opposition and also to the government and a bedroom to the electorate. In my opinion we always say politics is local. Why don't we ever say governance is local? The inability to understand that the local government is the first handshake of democracy to the people. If we understood what was needed we would rise for local government police which would guarantee security at the lowest cluster of governance. We would also rise for its autonomy and would give it rights to natural resources and etc. Let's remember the governance of local units live within us and can be held accountable easier than the number one houses in the state or the most protected drive in Abuja. So restructuring. Well I think like you rightly pointed out we do have a culture in Nigeria of spotting and resounding right sounding phrases over and over and over and when you look at the reality on ground and you look at the advocacy that's going on or the repeated use of these words it becomes really difficult to tie it together. It seems like you just said it's just a fact that we throw around rather than going deep into the roots of the issue. It's interesting because personally I have a different idea of restructuring and this is why I have a different idea because the truth is that in Nigeria the term one Nigeria is more ideological than practical. So what makes out so one is that we share common territory but when it comes to interest, common peoples the Nigerian interest is highly polarized. So the problem now becomes how do you restructure the country in such a way that these different interests are represented properly. So that is why for me the idea of restructuring is basically regionalism. For me what I feel will work for Nigeria is a weak center and strong regions you are more likely going to find common interest in the south west. You are more likely going to find common interest in the south east or north central or north west. So when these regions are given a level of political autonomy economic autonomy to control the region you discover that the struggle for the presidency will reduce because within the regions these guys already have a reasonable level of autonomy. It's like what you see in Spain for Catalonia it's like what you see in the United Kingdom for Scotland these guys have their paliaments they have a level of economic and political autonomy so you discover that the class for the central is little because on the regional level these guys push their own regional agenda do well for themselves and achieve a lot. So I think for me restructuring is just regionalism a weak center and then strong regions. Let's not fail to realize that Nigeria is a very very highly ethnicized country I think the major thing that polarizes us in this country apart from the quest for political power is our ethnicity and religion Of course ethnicity and religion are closely linked and I quite agree. Mr. Yemi, what do you think about this conversation? Can we hear you? Mr. Yemi? I think I would echo what the last advocate said about regional government. From my understanding the last time we really had an effective system of governance was when we had the regions prior to in 1966 and perhaps that's something we should consider again in the future because if you have all the resources in the center we're always now giving all the states different pieces of the pie to take from where we are probably continue to be that way. Yeah, so of course looking at it we always say state units should be able to function fully but I think what we miss which is key is that we look at restructuring on a state or regional level. I feel that if we looked at it on a local government level if we brought it down to the basic thing let's look at what's championing Nigeria and our security when you watch the average American movie you see sheriffs in town. The sheriffs in town is local government police let's translate it to what it is in our own system so why are we arguing a state police system? The closest people that you can hold accountable and people that know the areas imagine let's say I'm from let's say Afipu now in eastern Nigeria. If policemen are picked to function in Afipu and there are children that grew up in Afipu they can spot criminals faster than anybody else because everyone knows everyone can come in. That's true but it will be easier if that level of organization is coming down gradually if you're looking at restructuring you start from the ground up don't start from the top down and the reason why I'm most afraid of states having this power starting it at the states is already states have kidnapped financial power of local governments. You now want to grant them security powers no other opposition will run in that state with the emperors we have and the powers governors have clearly this we just imagine and now not to mention names but there's a very excited governor in the south south imagine him giving a state police he's going to burn the entire state down The thing with Nigeria is that if you look at it from that perspective we may miss it because Nigeria is highly polarized from the center do you get most of the crisis we have in Nigeria economy policies doesn't necessarily have to do with the local government the problem is that at the center the political interest is polarized so it's more like a context why I think regionalism will work is if for instance those the south west have their own region the south west can say ok what can better work for us what strategy of policing can work for us I mean if you look at it we have things like Amoteco and the eastern I mean this is a good start to implement ok so up next is Kingsley stay with us