•Party’s report deceptive –PDP
Chukwudi Nweje, Ndubuisi Orji and Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The All Progressive Congress (APC) has publicly presented the report of its Committee on True Federalism.
The true federalism committee was chaired by Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, who was absent at the public presentation of the report.
Daily Sun however gathered that the report was made public, to appease some Nigerians who accused the ruling APC of jettisoning its restructuring promise in the 2015 general elections campaign.
APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, in his welcome address, apologised to Nigerians for the delay in the restructuring move, and attributed it to the huge challenges it inherited from the previous administration.
Oyegun, however, admitted that there is need for Nigeria to urgently restructure; to enhance speedy socio-economic growth and development.
He said: “It was unfortunate that the restructuring campaign, which reached its peak last year, was obviously championed by people who were determined to run down the APC government but they failed to reason with us. We, undoubtedly, inherited a collapsed governance system and was faced with the task of fixing the economy, security, civil service, infrastructural deficit and other governance system that are helpful for the realisation of the agenda.
“But, we are glad that tremendous success has been recorded in all these areas. That has made the time ripe for the APC true federalism committee report and possible implementation of the content of the far-reaching report.”
He confessed that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has built a strong and formidable structure that will guarantee the success of the true federalism agenda of the APC.
He thus solicited the help of the National Assembly to expedite action on the report so that life could be injected in it.
On his part, El-Rufai said the report was unique, comprehensive and realistic, because it contains the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians, regardless of political, religious and ethnic differences.
He highlighted some of the recommendations which include devolution of power to states, resource management, internal security, merger of states, among several others.
Meanwhile, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has described the APC report on restructuring of the country as deceptive.
The PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, dismissed the report “as a ruse and another fresh attempt to beguile Nigerians with another round of lies, empty proposals and hollow promises, ahead of 2019 elections,” same way it did in 2015.
“It amounts to outright depravity that the same APC leaders who at assumption of office, rejected restructuring will now suddenly turn around to pose as fathers of a restructured Nigeria simply because the 2019 general elections beckon.”
In another development, Executive Chairman of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), Debo Adeniran, has warned Nigerians not to be swayed by the plethora of political chicanery playing out in the country, ahead of the 2019 general elections.
Adeniran urged Nigerians to interrogate the profile of every politician positioning himself for elective office next year.
Adeniran said these at a monthly state of the nation press conference in Lagos, yesterday, where he listed five key areas that must be addressed if Nigeria is to attain her full potential.
They include corruption, which Adeniran described as “our number one enemy. “The importance of combating corruption can never be over-emphasised as it is an avoidable drain pipe on our meagre national resources, just as it castrates government from being able to deliver on set-developmental goals.”
Other areas include dearth of social infrastructure, security of lives and property.
“Armed robbers and bandits have taken over most communities, from the intransigence of Niger Delta militants, to Biafra agitators, to the enclave of Boko Haram in the North East and the marauding hordes of herdsmen, Nigeria is a theatre of war where lives have lost its humane values,” he noted.