Is Nigeria ready for restructuring?

I understand that a lot of Nigerians, believe the that the country was doing better when it was practicing regionalism and we should go back to it under restructuring. Some people do have a form of nostalgia for the regions, since we believed that our major infrastructure was built during this period. I do believe that that might be so, but also there were problems in these quasi-autonomous entities. There was the issue of the minorities in each region and what to some seem like healthy rivalry. But it was not healthy and what lay underneath was deep-rooted suspicions, envy and jealously. Which could easily have been exploited and manipulated for political gain, as evident from the riots later, the coup and subsequently the civil war. The coalition ruling party (Northern and Eastern regions) were able to divide legally Western Region into Western and Mid-West Regions, after a referendum.  This could be said of all the regions, i.e. that they all had minorities who were just begging to have their own regions as they felt they were been supressed and dominated by the main tribe in their various Regions. But since the Western Region was not part of the government, and being in opposition, in a form of gerrymandering the powers that be were able to reduce the effectiveness of the opposition.

Nigerian federalism took firm roots in 1954, when three regions were established in a federal format for the first time in Nigerian political history. But since incorporation there were the issue of the minorities, for each group fighting for their area and share of the “regional cake”. In the North that previous writers have alluded to, was not one homogenous entity. The North consist of various tribes brought together by language (Hausa) and religion (Islam), ruled once by the Sokoto Caliphate and the Bornu Caliphate in the North East. The British had a total different relationship with it’s Northern Nigeria Protectorate, and the British kept intact the native authorities and their system, because there was difficulty in tax collection. Even as at then, there was a shortage of staff and revenue for public projects in the North, Lord Lugard corrected the disparity in 1914 with unification, hence the custom revenues from the South were paying for projects in the North. The strange relationship the ruling British Authorities had with the Northern leaders, Lord Lugard had promised the Emirs “to keep the missionaries out of the emirates”. “The colonial regime also feared that missionary activities in the emirates might lead to Mahdist outbreaks or religiously inspired political uprisings”. This was unfortunate, because the missionaries brought western education and as at the time of independence the South had far more graduates and “educated” personnel than the North. The kano riots 1953, was because the Northern delegates were against Nigeria having independence in 1956. Hence, the North fearing dominance by the South had delayed independence, and later instituted Quota system and Federal Character. And you can see that things have not changed.

There is a different group calling for restructuring and another saying we should not have it. I believe that it is like pre-independence that we feel that us gaining independence will solve all our problems. Majority of the those that are petitioning for restructuring are from the South. And those that are refusing are for the North. Most of the states from the South have the population and the means to be self-sustaining as the have very high IGR.  The infrastructure and facilities available in the South is way ahead. Despite the having quota system and federal character, the North has only been able to fill their elites while the rest suffers. Bill Gates traveled to Nigeria and over a decade spent $1.6 billion there successfully eradicating polio in North Eastern Nigeria, which had reemerged. Bill Gates gave statistics about Infant mortality rates, chronic malnutrition, maternal mortality rates, etc but it far worst in the North than in the South. As seen by the health map and it is for all indices and measurements. https://vizhub.healthdata.org/health-map/nigeria

As some people are saying that the 3 regions no longer suffice as some areas no longer can work under others. Some people suggest that we should go for 6 geopolitical regions. 

But when you look at the revenue of the 6 none of them are economically viable as in 2016. But recently that has changed, with only the South West being viable. A lot of people believe it is the way forward, and only time will tell. There is the issue of of cattle rearers, desert encroachment, Sharia law in some states or regions, etc. In addition the issue of migration from the less economic areas to the prosperous regions, these with religious differences maybe we have opened Pandora's box.