CHRISTIANITY, RESOURCE CONTROL AND RESTRUCTURING IN NIGERIA: THE WAY FORWARD

Abstract

The bid to restructure Nigeria has been attempted by various administrations that governed the country. Presently there is a raging debate from various concerned persons on the need to restructure the country and make it a federal entity in which the various federating units control their own resources, generate their own revenue, manage their own expenditure and make some contributions to the federal government. The paper using historical and analytical method of research insist that in the documents agreed upon and signed prior to the independence of the nation, the new nation was to be a truly federal State, with independent federal and regional governments. That arrangement worked at the beginning and ensured much productivity from the various regions until the military took over and foisted a unitary system on the nation because of their desire for absolute power and control of resources. With the discovery of crude oil in the Niger Delta, every other region and subsequently the States created by the military abandoned their previous efforts in agriculture and industrial ventures. Presently, concerned persons seeing the ominous danger sign that the present arrangement pose on the nation are making urgent calls for the restructuring of the nation to save it from the looming danger. The work recommends that the religious sector especially the Church should not keep mute on such critical issues that touch on the survival of the nation and the welfare of the citizenry. This necessitates this investigation on the current raging and nagging issue of restructuring and resource control in Nigeria and the opinion of the Christian sector.