What Restructuring Connotes – PFN Nat’l Publicity Sec, Bishop Emmah Isong
By Mikky Attah
Bishop Emmah Isong, the National Publicity Secretary of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, who is also a member of the United States Government Global Anti- Corruption Committee, has spoken out on the need to restructure Nigeria; maintaining that restructuring does not signify dividing the country into many parts.
Bishop Isong, who regularly speaks out on national issues and who is a sought- after speaker at conferences and seminars, also organises an annual public lecture in October to mark his birthday, and this has been running for the past seven years.
The public lecture anniversary committee selects people, including business moguls and technocrats amongst others, to deliver papers on the state of the nation and advance discussions on the way forward.
Speaking as a Guest at the University of Calabar recently, Bishop Isong said that restructuring does not mean scattering Nigeria into twenty places, but would rather bring about a state of equality between the zones that make up the country.
The Bishop is now suggesting that the President as well as the National Assembly create more states, in order to balance all zones.
Bishop Isong says that his idea of restructuring is that the number of seats in parliament be the same.
According to the Bishop, “ When matters are not equal on a table, the pendulum swings only in a preferred direction”.
Using his primary constituency, the church to underscore his point, Bishop Isong pointed out that between the north and the south in Nigeria, there still exists inequalities officially, between Islam and Christianity.
Bishop Isong pointed out that churches are largely denied Certificates of Occupancy in the North; whereas in the southern part of Nigeria, every religious organisation is free to own land, and to build.
“Mosques should be given Certificates of Occupancy in the South, and churches should be given Certificates of Occupancy in the North. Right now most churches in the North are denied Certificates of Occupancy. That imbalance should be corrected”, the Bishop said.
On the issue of RUGA, which is currently raging across Nigeria, Bishop Isong believes that for justice as well as fairness, budgetary provision cannot solely be made for land to be given to private cattle herdsmen, to the exclusion of farmers of all other livestock products.
The Bishop is now saying that; included in the nation’s budget should be provision for poultry farmers, fishermen, goat herders as well as snail farmers, amongst others.
Bishop Isong says, ” We should not only make our budget and provide land for cattle herdsmen.
“So that the Fulani herdsman in Katsina will be equal in treatment like the Bayelsa Fisherman, in Bayelsa State”, the Bishop said.
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