Insecurity: Address key pains of angry Nigerians, instead of threatening them, Moghalu tells FG

The 2019 Presidential candidate of the Young Progressive Party (YPP) and former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kingsley Moghalu, has urged the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government to address the key pains of Nigerians and fundamental issues of those agitating for secession in the country, instead of threatening them.

In reaction to the vicious killings, kidnappings and attacks on government offices especially in the South Eastern part of the country, President Buhari had, on Tuesday, threatened to ‘deal with misbehaving Nigerians in the language they understand.’

But Moghalu, while reacting to the President’s statement during a programme on Arise television, on Wednesday, said the President should not have made such statement as it was capable of evoking painful memories of the Nigerian civil war in which many citizens of the country lost their loved ones.

“Some parts of the President’s statement was a little bit unfortunate and it was where he said he would treat some people in the language that they understand. Making such statements is evocative of painful memories of the Nigerian civil war.

“I saw war and death during the unrest. Personally, I lost my uncle during the war and I could remember that his funeral was horrendous as my grandmother wept profusely. And that is to tell you that either in the southeast or any part of the country, war and violence is a terrible thing, he said.

“But this country can still be peaceful and United. I believe we should be able to manage our differences by bringing all the ethnic agitators to the table and seek to address the fundamental issues that are making them go the way they have been doing. It is sad that we often ignore the foundations and root causes of the agitations and just focus more on labelling the agitators.

Harping on the urgent need for electoral reforms and restructuring of the country, he said: “You can have a democracy in name only and some forms of rituals every four years which is what we do in Nigeria, but to make democracy a tool for development, we must reform the Nigerian electoral framework in some fundamental ways.”

“This is because people today do not have confidence that their votes will count in the country, which is why you see 84 million people register for an election and only 28 million actually come out to vote. It tells you that something horribly is wrong and that the people no longer have confidence in our electoral system. And that is why we need to reform it.

“Also, Nigeria has no real future without a fundamental restructuring of the country to return it to a truly federal state such as we have before the military coup of 1966. I believe that there should be a new constitution for Nigeria by the Nigerian people because panel-beating the constitution is not the answer,” he added.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

Insecurity: Address key pains of angry Nigerians, instead of threatening them, Moghalu tells FG

We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents

In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state…  Insecurity: Address key pains of angry Nigerians, instead of threatening them, Moghalu tells FG