PDP govs converge on Ibadan to discuss growing national insecurity

Governors elected under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will converge on Ibadan, on Monday, to discuss the state of the nation particularly the worsening insecurity.

The meeting is a follow up on a similar one held in Makurdi, the Benue State capital in April, which similarly had on its agenda, the state of the nation.

The agenda released by the Director-General of the PDP Governors Forum, Hon Cyril Maduabum, on Sunday, indicated that the meeting to be presided over by its Chairman and Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal, will also fine-tune strategies to render the party a viable alternative to the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC).

“The meeting will further review the current state of the nation especially issues of national security and the economy, and also fine-tune strategies to support PDP as a viable and necessary alternative to the disastrous APC administration,” the statement said.

Fifteen governors elected under the PDP will attend the meeting being hosted by Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State.

Recall that at the end of the Makurdi meeting, the PDP governors had called for the devolution of power and restructuring of the country as a way not to avert another civil war.

They posited in a communique that the country was drifting at an alarming rate that could lead it to a failed state if not checked.

The governors also expressed deep concern and alarm at the deteriorating relations between various groups in Nigeria.

They said that they were deeply worried that “indeed, all our fault lines and differences are being stretched to the limit by a government that clearly lacks the capacity to govern. The meeting agreed that this has given rise to ethnic and tribal tensions, religious divisions, and various forms of social and political cleavages.”

The Governors concluded that Nigeria was in dire need of leadership at the Federal level to avert the looming disaster.

They also expressed concern that the security of lives and property of Nigerians was no longer guaranteed under the present government as a result of leadership incompetence and mismanagement of the nation’s affairs.

While noting that governors have a role to play in the handling of some of the worsening situations, they regretted that “their hands are tied behind their backs as the entire coercive authority in the country is monopolised by the APC federal government.”

The governors, therefore, stressed the need to take advantage of the ongoing Constitution Amendment process to decentralise the security architecture of Nigeria and involve States and Local Governments.

The communique released after the Makurdi meeting had said: “Consequently, the Governors reaffirmed their conviction that an urgent devolution of powers and restructuring of the country in a way that brings together various groups and tendencies in the country appears to have become imperative and timely now as Nigeria cannot afford another civil war.

“We call on the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission to send a new Revenue Allocation Formular that allocates more resources to States and Local Governments to Mr President for National Assembly’s action. It is a scandal that 21 years after the 1999 Constitution came into being, no new Revenue Formula is in place.

“Furthermore, the meeting called for a more transparent and accountable running and operation of the NNPC.”

On the APC’s attitude, the PDP state chief executives had condemned the intimidation of opposition sitting governors by the ruling party by using all sorts of weapons like security agencies, unequal access to federal resources, promotion of divisions in the opposition political parties with fake promises and falsehoods.

The communique had added: “We significantly condemn the double standards that are applied by the APC-led federal government to intimidate PDP controlled states.

“To this end, we call on Mr President to lift the so-called “No flight Zone” and other intimidating tactics, imposed on Zamfara State as similar measures have not been extended to similar states with security challenges like Kaduna, Borno, Katsina, Yobe and others. This is mostly politically motivated to ensure that the Governors move over to APC.”

The meeting noted that the APC had been unable to even have a democratically-elected National Executive Committee as required by the Nigerian Constitution.

“A Political Party that operates by military fiat with an appointed and unelected Executive Committee at all levels from ward to national has no business running the affairs of our country.

“APC cannot deliver democracy to Nigeria; even to constitute a Board of Trustees has been an impossible task for the party since inception. It further expressed surprise that the APC is interested in playing politics and jockeying for power in 2023 when they have done an abysmal and terribly poor job of their current questionable mandate,” the communique added.

The governors were distressed that Nigeria is now officially the country with the highest unemployment rate in the world at 33% under the disastrous leadership of APC, noting that this is following on the heels of yet another feat of being the country with the second-highest poverty rate in the world.

“For APC, it is indeed a race to the bottom,” the governors declared.

The Makurdi meeting commended the governors of PDP-controlled states for “their innovative approaches to governance in many fields especially infrastructure, education, health, women and youth initiatives and the timely delivery of developmental projects, across the country. It is these Legacy Projects being undertaken in many PDP-governed states that will be presented to Nigerians as our scorecard at the appropriate time.”

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PDP govs converge on Ibadan to discuss growing national insecurity