President
Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday came under attack
over their separate remarks on the growing calls for the restructuring of the
country.
Groups that
faulted latest comments credited to Buhari and Osinbajo on the calls include
the opposition Peoples Democratic Party; a Yoruba organisation, Afenifere; the
Ohanaeze Ndigbo; the Yoruba Council of Elders; and the Transparency
International.
Buhari had
during an interactive session with Nigerians living in France on Monday taken a
swipe at advocates of restructuring, saying they were lazy and let loose.
The
President had claimed that those calling for restructuring had been doing so
without defining what the restructuring should be.
Osinbajo had
also while delivering a lecture to mark the 40th anniversary of a Lagos social
club, Association of Friends, in Lagos claimed that the idea of geographical
restructuring which is the common notion about restructuring “is not
achievable.”
Buhari had
said, “There are too many people talking lazily about restructuring in Nigeria.
Unfortunately, people are not asking them individually what do they mean by
restructuring? What form do they want restructuring to take?
“Do they
want us to have something like the three regions we used to have? And now we
have 36 states and the FCT. What form do they want? They are just talking
loosely about restructuring.
“Let them
define it and then we see how we can peacefully do it in the interest of
Nigerians.
“They are
just saying they want Nigeria restructured and they don’t have the clue of what
the form the restructuring should be.
“So, anybody
who talks to you about restructuring in Nigeria, ask him what he means and the
form he wants it to take.”
But the
National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, told one of our
correspondents that the latest statements credited to Buhari and Osinbajo
further confirmed the present administration as a government of deceit and
disagreement.
The party
chairman said, “Recall that the ruling party itself set up a committee on
restructuring. What came out of the committee after the governors and other
members of the committee went round the country, collating views of innocent
Nigerians who never knew they were being deceived by this deceitful government?
Nothing!
“Now, the
Vice-President is saying he is in support of state police which his boss has
rejected. You can see that the
Vice-President is on his own. The
disunity in this government reminds us the seed of discord the government has
planted in Nigerians.
“But in the
real sense of it, does he (Vice-President) support state police? Can he be
taken seriously? Let Nigerians decide.”
Also, the
Afenifere’s spokesman, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, in an interview with one of our
correspondents also said the statements credited to Buhari and Osinbajo meant
they were either slow at learning or they were being mischievous.
He said
advocates of restructuring had over the years made the issues very clear on
what the call was all about.
He added
that the development had made it important that future Nigeria’s Presidents and
Vice-Presidents should study hard so that they could understand issues around them.
Odumakin
said, “…It is strange that these people have been here all these years and they
are saying those who are talking about restructuring did not define it or that
they are talking loosely.
“It is
either these people are slow at learning or they cannot understand issues
around them. We have made the issues very clear on what the call for
restructuring is about.
“We have
said Nigeria was a federal state at independence but the military came and
distorted it and that we should go back to federalism; that we cannot have a
country like Nigeria and maintain one single police and we will say we have
security; that there should be state police.
“We have
spelt out all we meant by restructuring over the years. So for the President
and Vice-President to say they do not understand what we are talking about is
either they are slow at learning or they are being mischievous.”
In the same
vein, the spokesman for the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Uche Achi-Okpaga, in an interview
said Buhari’s statement was meant to divert attention.
Achi-Okpaga
expressed surprise that while Buhari and other APC stalwarts were talking about
restructuring ahead of the 2015 presidential election, the President became
“completely ignorant and bereft of the tenets of restructuring” shortly after he
was inaugurated as President.
He said,
“During the electoral campaigns of 2015, restructuring was glued to the lips of
the President and other APC stalwarts and foot soldiers. However, no sooner was
he sworn in than he became completely ignorant and bereft of the tenets of
restructuring.
“In the heat
of the impasse, the APC, as a party, set up a committee on restructuring headed
by Governor el-Rufai of Kaduna State. The committee ticked good on
restructuring and sent her report to the presidency.
“Instead of
dealing with the document the President sent the report to the dustbin as it
never saw the light of the day and turned around to state that those clamouring
for restructuring, including his party that so recommended, are parochial.”
Also, the Secretary-General
of the Yoruba Council of Elders, Dr Kunle Olajide, in an interview with one of
our correspondents said it was worrisome that the two key leaders of the ruling
APC could claim ignorance of what restructuring was about after their party had
earlier set up a committee on the matter.
He wondered
if the country was dealing with a case of memory loss.
Olajide
insisted that the positions of advocates of restructuring were clear and
unambiguous.
He said, “I
was surprised after reading the responses of the two leading figures in the APC
and present administration on restructuring agitators. It is worrisome that an
APC figure could come out to claim ignorance of what restructuring is all
about. Are we dealing with a case of amnesia here?
He said, “I
appeal to them to take a second look at the el-Rufai committee report on
restructuring. It is their party that set it up and they should come up with
how it will be implemented instead of talking about what restructuring means.
Our position is clear and unambiguous on it.”
Meanwhile,
the Transparency International on Tuesday said Nigeria was not ripe for state
police.
The TI Head
in Nigeria, Mr. Musa Rafsanjani, said this in an interview with a Media
correspondent.
He said,
“Even if Nigeria will have a state police, it is not yet time to hand over the
entire security of states to the hands of these governors, some of whom cannot
even pay workers’ salaries.
“The
implication of having state police is that the entire security now rests on the
states. We think that issue of security is so serious that we cannot give it to
states which do not have infrastructure yet even in the areas of health and
education.
“At the
federal level, you still find overzealous policemen and police officers acting
on the instructions of certain political office holders. When this impunity now
flows down, what are we going to have? Most of the state Houses of Assembly
have been undermined by the governors and the houses are not able to perform
their constitutional responsibilities.
“We think
that as good as the proposal of state police is, we cannot at this time hand
over the security of the country to governors who have proved to be incompetent
and nonchalant about the wellbeing of people and workers in their states.”
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