Afenifere faults Buhari on comment on restructuring

THE Pan-Yoruba Socio-Political organisation, Afenifere, has restated its call on the need for the Federal Government to restructure the country saying Nigeria at the moment is a dysfunctional country sliding towards the edge of the precipice.

The group restated its position in a communique issued at the end of its monthly meeting in Akure, said the problems confronting Nigeria as a nation can only be resolved by embracing restructuring and called on Nigerian leaders to revisit the 1966 constitutional model.

Reading the group’s communique after the meeting, the National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, the group condemned President Muhammadu Buhari stand on restructuring and said “we are not impressed by the broadcast by the President after his return especially his stand on the restructuring in Nigeria which he said is a matter only for the National Assembly and the council of state.

“We do not agree that the sovereignty in the land rests with these two bodies but sovereignty rests with the people and the people therefore must be the one to determine the way forward for the country in crisis.

“We believe at this point now we need a constitution Assembly elected by the people of Nigeria to deal with the question of restructuring so that the country can be put on the sound footing.

“By restructuring we mean that Nigeria at the moment is a dysfunctional country sliding towards the edge of the precipice with crimes rising day by day, the economy in a parlour state, and the forces of disintegration have been let loose, all the good things that are made for good living are beyond our people and the prices of food today in Nigeria is at an eight year high.”

The group stated further in the communique that the problems confronting the nation would be a thing of the past only if the present administration in the country restructure the country.

The communique read “It is clear at this point that we cannot resolve any of the problems confronting Nigeria today except we restructure, and by restructuring, Nigeria should go back to the 1966 constitutional model that guaranteed that all section of Nigeria live under a federal constitution with which they fulfil the aspiration and their development, productivity and accountability.

“It is only the authors of confusion that are saying today that restructuring means different thing to different people but there is only one definition of restructuring. Nigeria must move from a unitary constitutional arrangement to a federal constitutional arrangement as we had in the first republic, any other thing outside that is running from the issue.

“For those who also think that a restructured Nigeria would not change what was on ground in terms of lopsidedness and the question of leadership in various state, we say to them that a restructured Nigeria will deal with productivity and not sharing.

“It is because we are doing sharing now that is why we have erected all kind of structure to enable cheating, domination but we want to go back to productivity under a restructured Nigeria where every section of Nigeria would be managing what they have on their soil and they will pay tax to the center and there will be no need for anybody constructing any structure to cheat any other person.

“Secondly leadership will be different from what we have now because politics under restructured Nigeria will be about service like we have in the first Republic and not going to be about using politics to make money or using politics as a trade, the structure will change under a restructured Nigeria.”

Afenifere also condemned the unchecked activities of the herdsmen in the south west region saying the federal government has continued to turn its eyes away from the atrocities of the herdsmen.

They said “We are aggrieved that the federal government has continued to turn the other eye, while these Fulani herdsmen continue their murderous activities all over the country.

“We call on federal government to enforce law and order against these herdsmen, while we called on the governor of the south west to emulate the Ekiti State governor and ensure they put in place an appropriate law to deal with the activities of these herdsmen in the region.

“A 75-year-old woman was gang raped in Ore, in Odigbo area of Ondo State and the assailants are yet to be brought to book and also Chief Olu Falae whose farm has become a sort of perennial attack by the Fulani herdsmen, only yesterday came under a renewed attack with policemen on his farm shot at by these Fulani herdsmen.”

The group also condemned the unwarranted and avoidable ongoing strike by the member of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) urging the federal government to honour it’s agreement while it condemned the lower entry point introduced by the JAMB.

“We are surprised that JAMB has recently decided to lower entry point into all universities, this is an attempt to destroy merit in admission process and this is unfortunate.

“We believe this is anti-federalism because in a federal state every university should be in a position to determine their entry point to their university to maintain standard.

“JAMB should not destroy the merit of our universities by this kind of unbridled assault on merits in our universities, they should rescind the order and allow autonomy for the Universities to run their university and determine their cut off points.”

They however threw their weight behind the Yoruba summit scheduled for next month in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, enjoining all leaders from the region to participate in the summit to “decide their fate within Nigeria and determine on a proper architecture of a governance and take position on restructuring and true federalism.”