While the matter has been widely discussed and advocated for by many, Mr Shehu says the government is not opposed to it but only has a different approach from those advocating for it.

“Yes, restructuring is there in our party’s manifesto but I think the difference with those advocates is the mechanism for achieving this,” he said on Channels TV’s Independence Day edition of Politics Today.

According to him, many of advocates call for a restructuring that is independent of the National Assembly.

But the government believes that anything outside the parliament is not representative of the will of the people.

“I guess that some of them think that this can be achieved through a process that alienates the parliaments”.

“Our sense is that an elected government in a democracy must work with the elected parliament and that anything outside the parliament, not elected by the people is not representative of the popular will of the people because the parliament is the repository of the popular will of the people”.

“So, if the Nigerian parliament says this is the way to go, the president will consider it,” Shehu said.