Pan- Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, on Tuesday said it is the frustration that Nigerians are going through that has occasioned the call for an Interim Government, as well as the call by the Northern Elder’s Forum (NEF) that President Muhammadu Buhari should resign from office, but quickly asserted that it did not support the cancellation or postponement of the scheduled elections.
Afenifere gave this position in reaction to a call by a prominent lawyer and an elder statesman, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) that President Muhammadu should shift the 2023 General Elections and put in place an Interim Government to midwife a new and acceptable constitution for the country.
Spokesperson of Afenifere, Comrade Ajayi, said the pan- Yoruba group, while acknowledging the enormity of the problems facing the country, which made prominent people like Chief Babalola and Archbishop Mathew Hassan Kukah raised their voices, declared that there was no justification whatsoever for the Buhari administration to spend one day in office beyond May 29, 2023, as stipulated by the 1999 Constitution.
According to the group, the only constitutionally stipulated way of changing government is through the electoral process, asserting that Afenifere being a law-abiding organisation does not believe in extra legal means of changing government.
“The submission by Archbishop Mathew Hassan Kukah and Chief Afe Babalola, SAN summed up the precarious situation bedevilling Nigeria. By this, we mean the unprecedented low level to which the country has sunk, including the depth of mistrust among subgroups in the country.
“Compounding these were the cheapening of human life, displacement of innocent people from their ancestral homes and the elevation of corruption almost into the statecraft.
“It was not surprising, therefore, that senior citizens in the North under the auspices of Northern Elders Forum (NEF) called for the resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari,” Ajayi said.
“The frustration by Nigerians was also behind the call for an Interim Government by Chief Afe Babalola, SAN. Afenifere acknowledged the enormity of the problems, but it does not support the cancellation or postponement of the scheduled elections.
“There is no justification whatsoever for this administration to spend one day beyond the stipulated period – which is May 29, 2023. And the only constitutionally stipulated way of changing government is through the electoral process. Being a law-abiding organisation, Afenifere does not believe in extra legal means of changing government,” he added.
On the call by the NEF that President Buhari should resign, Afenifere said while it might appear that the call was coming rather late in the day, maintained that the frustration that gave birth to it was quite understandable.
The pan- Yoruba said that where the government is properly run, such a call would not have emanated, but noted that for the call to have come from a group known to hardly see anything wrong with an administration headed by a Northerner was an important reason for President Buhari to realise that his government had really failed Nigerians.
“On the call by the NEF that General Buhari should resign, while it might appear that the call is coming rather late in the day, the frustration that gave birth to it is quite understandable. Were the government being properly run, such a call would not have come.
“That it came from a group known to hardly see anything wrong with an administration headed by a Northerner is an important reason for President Buhari to realise that his government has really failed Nigerians,” Afenifere said.
Speaking further, Afenifere sadly recalled that the situation under President Buhari became so damning that Robert Kennedy University in Scotland used him as an example of a negatively-performing head of a government, describing such a tag as a national embarrassment, adding: “It was something that right-thinking Nigerians were ashamed of.”
According to the pan- Yoruba socio-political group, Nigerians could not effectively challenge the university – and many others who share the same view because its inference reflected the reality of the situation in Nigeria presently, pointing out that there was no doubt that the situation in Nigeria had overwhelmed the present officials in Buhari’s government.
The group, however, reiterated its call for immediate restructuring of the country into True Federalism, saying it would not be out of place for President Buhari to get innovative patriots from all strata of the society to constitute a governing college or council to achieve such.
“It would, therefore, not be out of place for President Buhari to get innovative patriots from all strata of the society to constitute a governing college or council.
“The major task of such a body should be the immediate Restructuring of the country into a True Federalism,” Afenifere said.
This was just as the group said Bishop Kukah’s submission should serve as ‘a wake-up call’ for the government so that the ills of the society can be addressed quickly – in an honest and enduring manner.
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