Amidst strident clamour for the restructuring, a member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George has given reasons why the party could not carry out the restructure of the country to a true federalism during its 16 years in power.
George, who is a former deputy national chairman of the PDP and staunch advocate of restructuring, said the first stanza of PDP in government under Olusegun Obasanjo served as a learning curve due to the severe challenges that confronted the country at the return to civil rule in 1999.
He said the prevailing situation at the time called for circumspect in order to stabilise the political system and country, as well as return it to the path of sanity, prospect and progress after the transition from the military regime to a civilian dispensation.
He noted that there were pragmatic actions taken by the PDP administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan to restructure the country and restore true federalism but for what he perceived as the controversial 2015 presidential election.
According to the former military administrator of Ondo State, the general election that brought the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) to power was everything but free, fair and credible.
George recalled the convocation of the national Constitutional Conference (CONFAB) organised by President Jonathan in 2014, with delegates drawn from a broad spectrum of the society and came up with far-reaching resolutions which would have culminated into power devolution and restructuring to make the country function optimally.
But, the recommendations of the conference suffered a major set because of the outcome of the 2015 general election, hence the report of the conference has since been kept in abeyance, in spite of calls for its implementation by the then Buhari administration.
The PDP chieftain, who was among the prominent persons that spoke at the recent summit organised by The Patriots, a group comprising elder statesmen and leaders of Thought, said that the country should jettison the existing presidential system of government for a parliamentary arrangement based on the peculiarities of the constituent units.
He blamed the defeat of the PDP in the 2023 presidential election to the lack of compromise by some sections of the party leadership on power rotation and zoning to guarantee equity, fairness and justice.
He said the forthcoming meeting of the National Working Committee of the PDP would provide the opportunity to chart a new beginning based on the cardinal principles espoused by the founding fathers of the main opposition party.
