According to Atiku, Igbos who fought the civil war, which led to the destruction of lives and properties in the South East region, still managed to pick themselves up and reconstruct, this however can not be said for the Hausa's who till date still have mud houses in the communities.
Speaking to a coalition of youth groups under the aegis of Play Forum in Abuja over the weekend Atiku said:
“I would not have gone to school if I were born today. My parents were so poor they couldn’t afford to send me to school. I was born during the era education was free, food was free for me, I was sponsored from primary school to the university. There was even a job waiting for me before I graduated. Yet, there was no oil boom then. I am certainly not a product of oil boom Nigeria. So, I don’t know what those who are against restructuring are afraid of. Those afraid must be lazy. We fought the civil war with the Igbo. Today, the Igbo have been completely rebuilt, but we still find mud houses in the north. Is it the fault of the easterners that the north is like that? I think that what is most important is the devolution of powers and resources with the various governments whether states or regions. How do the people hold those in power accountable for the resources handed over to them? Left for me, I will ask every part of this country to take charge of its resources while the federal government should handle defense, foreign affairs and immigration among others in the exclusive list. It should not be complicated to start with all the recurrent items in the constitution. The president can dialogue with the governors or the national assembly for states to take charge of the roads, hospitals, schools and such other items in the concurrent List while the federal government will continue with items on the exclusive list2 he said
