A Chieftain of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), Chief Ayo Opadokun, has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to take immediate steps to restore Nigeria to constitutional governance.
Opadokun, who is the erstwhile secretary of the Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, urged President Tinubu to leave a worthy legacy behind by taking immediate measures to see to the implementation of “our restoration to constitutional governance as recommended by the Nasir el-Rufai panel”.
Speaking with journalists in his Offa country home, Kwara state on the sidelines of this year’s Christmas carol he organised, themed, “Praising our saviour”, the NADECO chieftain urged the president to implement the manifesto his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) presented to the public before he was elected into office.
“In its congratulatory letter to the president after his victory at the Supreme Court, NADECO urged the president to implement the manifesto his party All Progressives Congress (APC) presented to the public before they were elected into office.
“Because then, President Muhammadu Buhari did not implement the manifesto during his time, we campaigned vigorous for it implementation.
“As a result, the Buhari administration set up a panel headed by the then governor of Kaduna state Nasir El-Rufai, and the panel recommended devolution of powers to the states. The panel equally recommended fiscal federalism.
“It also recommended that states that so wish should be allowed to merge together. Another thing it recommended is the creation of state police. Therefore, we are asking the president to take immediate steps to implement the panel’s reports.
“I know that Tinubu has the capacity to want to lift people out of the current untenable and unacceptable level of poverty, but he should be take immediate steps.
“The much more fundamental matter is the restoration of Nigeria to the Federal constitutional arrangement upon which we secured our independence which the army subverted, abrogated and substituted with a unitary-centralist government. Nigeria has been living a lie by calling itself a federal government. We are nothing of such. Since January 15, 1966 we have been lying to the whole world and lying to ourselves.
“That is why Federal constitutional arrangement is the most suitable for Nigeria. Until we return to it nothing will happen to our country.
“Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was part of us in the trenches. We were together in the trenches. The current Fourth Republic was not secured on gold platter. We paid for it by our sweat, blood, freedom. Some people were detained for several years inclusive of me. My first detention lasted 24 calendar months.
“They picked me up again. I was in Ikoyi prison when General Sanni Abacha died. Some of us were killed.
“President Tinubu, who was part of us in the trenches, knows what we were fighting for– that is restoration of democracy and federal constitutional arrangement.
“The situation we find ourselves is that no matter how willing, how desirous President Tinubu may want to change the current situation, he is handicapped.
“This is because all that we are witnessing is the culmination of prolonged years of wrongly-headed economic policies initiated, promoted and financed by the military and their surrogates. You cannot withdraw them one day and change the situation for the better. That is the unfortunate situation we have found ourselves”.
Talking about the ability of President Tinubu, the activist said that “Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is the first person to be in the office of presidency who has abundance and expertise of what we call economy, finance. Of all those who had governed Nigeria before none had the pedigree of President Tinubu.
“This is the first time that we have somebody who has knowledge as sub treasurer, who had been an auditor, who had been in business before going into politics.
“I have no doubt in my mind, to say that President Tinubu will not be a happy person as the situation remains in Nigeria of today.
“But if you look at the trajectory of what the socio-economic position of Nigeria had been in the last 35 to 40 years you should be sorry for Nigeria that we have been brought so low by the deliberate acts of greed, wickedness and perversion of the invaders so-called Nigerian army.
“In truth and in fact, they were not Nigerian army. That is why they keep on till today behaving as army of occupation.
“The army arrested the country’s growth by capturing power on January 15th, 1966 and since then that had stunted our growth and development that was going on very visibly in the first republic.
“In the first republic, we witnessed an authentic governance. We saw situation where people took governance and the people serious.
“During the campaign for independence the nationalists insisted on an arrangement that is suitable for an heterogeneous society like our own.
“A country of almost 400 different ethnic groups with their diverse languages, religions, traditions, customs, artefacts, folklores, mores, morals etc.
“A federal constitutional arrangement was the most suitable because it will provide room for the agreement of all these diversities, meeting at the centre”.
The former Afenifere secretary also said that, “the president is not asking you to pity him. He knows that the situation is bad, but he is taking measures to see how he can bring about a change in the earliest possible time.
“All the measures you see him take are geared towards making things better. But I am afraid because the currently warped, lop-sided, skewed national structure is most unlikely to allow him succeed”.
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