Restructuring: Atiku commends APC govs, others

Former vice president and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar, on Tuesday, commended the resolution of the governors elected under the platform of APC who endorsed the agitation  for the restructuring and true federalism in the country, saying the issue transcends religion and ethnicity.

Atiku also described as patriotic the convergence of positions around restructuring by leaders and stakeholders from diverse regions of the country noting that this  confirmed  that he (Atiku Abubakar) was not just a lone voice in the wilderness in the inevitability of restructuring of Nigeria for the good of all.

The former Vice President, in a statement made available to news men in Abuja, on Tuesday, by his media office, explained that the agitations for secession would not have arisen if the country had shown sincere readiness to address the underlying problems that fueled the agitations by separatist forces. 

According to him,”the restructuring debate transcends the ambition of any single politician in Nigeria, and  any attempt to ignore the agitation could make a bad situation more complicated.”

Atiku, who explained that avoiding a problem would not  solve that problem, declared that with so much hate, distrust, suspicions and fears in the country, political leaders should not be afraid to confront the challenge. 

According to him, “our current federal structure should be freely discussed by allowing the federating units voice their grievances with a view to finding workable solutions that protects the rights and interests of all”. 

He stated that the country could not afford to allow bottled up frustrations of the people to explode into violence, which threatens not only innocent lives, but also harms the country’s economic assets. 

Atiku therefore, lauded  the  APC governors and other leaders and groups for their courage to confront the country’s most urgent national challenge,saying that “separatist agitations are dangerously threatening the country’s unity and indivisibilit, no country can afford to take these threats lightly.”