Senate President Ahmad Lawan has given legitimacy to the calls for secession.

Mr Lawan also pointed out that he considered agitations for the country’s restructuring as genuine. However, he castigated southern governors for adding their voice to the demand for a restructured Nigeria.

Mr Lawan, who fielded questions from journalists in Abuja on Thursday, urged the governors to pay more attention to restructuring their states by working hard to provide good governance to the citizens.

According to him, the southern governors can be guilty of what they accuse President Muhammadu Buhari of not doing.

Expressing his view on the call for secession, Mr Lawan said, “The call for secession or the call for restructuring, many are genuine calls even though I never believe that someone who is calling for secession means well or is a misguided person.

“But I believe that when somebody calls for improving the structure that we have is a genuine call.”

Mr Buhari’s regime had proscribed IPOB for its secessionist agenda. IPOB has consistently called for the South-East to secede from Nigeria and become the Biafra Republic. IPOB’s leader Nnamdi Kanu, once arrested and released on bail fled to the UK. He is considered a fugitive by Mr Buhari’s regime.

Mr Lawan also frowned on how the local government system was relegated to the background in the country, saying for the nation to address its security challenges, the local government system must be functional and efficient.

“I want to take this opportunity also to say that we have diminished the local government system. I think we can attribute some of the security issues to the lack of a functional local government system,” noted Mr Lawan.