Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, said on Saturday that Nigeria is fast becoming a dictatorial and tyrannical state, pointing out that it arrived at its conclusion in view of various actions and pronouncements of the Federal Government in recent times.
Acting Leader of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, made this declaration in a press release made available by the group’s spokesperson, Comrade Jare Ajayi.
According to Adebanjo, the dictatorial tendency of the President Muhammadu Buhari can be seen in his insistence to go ahead with re-opening grazing routes and establishment of ranches in the country when the preponderance of opinions across the country is to do away with such.
The elder statesman said it could be recalled that 19 Northern states’ governors at their meeting on February 9, 2021, resolved that Open Grazing could no longer be sustained, while they also resolved to encourage herders in their areas to go into modern way of rearing cows which is ranching.
“On May 11 of this same year, their counterparts in all the 17 states in the South met in Asaba, Delta State and placed a ban on Open Grazing. This was backed up with legal instruments through the enactment of an enabling law as passed by the respective Houses of Assembly as enshrined in Section 4 and in Part 2 of the Second Schedule of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
“Also, against the wishes of the majority of Nigerians, the President went ahead to sign the PIB into law despite the obvious injustice contained therein and to which the attention of the government was called beforehand.
“Same goes for the insistence on going for the non transmission of elections results electronically when doing so was what majority of Nigerians wanted and asked for,” he said.
Afenifere, while maintaining that only a government with dictatorial tendencies behaved such manner, even as it submitted that further evidence could be seen in how President Buhari’s administration was hard on those agitating for a better life for their people while it was soft on bandits, kidnappers and herders who were imperilling the lives of farmers.
It lamented that on several occasions, the Buhari administration had taken measures that were totally against the interests of the Nigerian populace, saying this was contrary to the promises he and his party, All Progressives Congress (APC) made during the electoral campaigns.
“The prices of commodities and services have skyrocketed while social services delivery and infrastructure kept receding.
“The worst aspect of all these is the level of insecurity in the country today. At no time in the history of this Nigeria had life been so cheap and living was so precarious as they were presently.
“Unfortunately, those who should act are expressing their helplessness as exemplified by the call of Katsina State governor, Bello Masari, calling on the people of the state to find the means of securing themselves against bandits who have literally taken control in many parts of the state.
“For sure, Masari was not the first official to make such a call. But his was very significant not only because he belongs to the same political party with the president but also because he is the governor of the president’s home state.
“Rather than confronting the challenges in various issues that have direct bearings on the life of the people, the Federal Government preferred to go for the less impactful things such as regulating the media, going after those who are peacefully expressing displeasure over what is going on in the country and concerning itself with where and how cows are to be grazed in the country,” Chief Adebanjo said.
The Afenifere leader posited that the attitude displayed by President Buhari “recalls to one’s mind, the story of the Roman Emperor Nero who was busy on the fiddle when his empire was burning.”
The elder statesman, therefore, called President Buhari to ‘redirect its administration adroitly, and embrace democratic ethos immediately by pursuing only policies that were in the best interests of the people, just as he restated the group’s call for an urgent restructuring of the country.
“The only panacea to the multi various problems bedevilling the country now is for the Federal Government to shun nepotism, confront insecurity and Restructure the country immediately,” Adebanjo asserted.
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