In what appears a unanimous verdict,
opposition political parties led by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, have taken a swipe at the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, over claims that President Muhammadu Buhari has, by the policies and programmes of his administration, commenced the gradual process of restructuring the country.
The APC had earlier in the week in “The Progressives,” a monthly in house publication, lauded President Buhari for taking tough steps in repositioning Nigeria for good.
Titled, “Calm Down! Restructuring has begun,” the APC chided previous administrations for spending billions of taxpayers’ funds convoking national conferences which recommendations, they ended up not
implementing, adding that under the
leadership of President Buhari, things have changed for the better and the president has evidently and progressively began restructuring the country in line with the 2015
election promise to ensure true federalism and devolution of powers.”
The partly also cited President Buhari’s approval of a new minimum wage of N30,000 per month for workers and granting of financial autonomy to third tier of government
as an indication of a gradual take off of the much craved restructuring of the country.
This claim has however not gone down well with other political parties who have wasted no time in dismissing same as empty and
deceptive.
APC lied, Buhari not restructuring —PANDEF chair
National Chairman of Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga
(retd), yesterday, dismissed the declaration by the All Progressives Congress, APC, that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government had started restructuring of the country with financial autonomy granted to local governments and approval of N30, 000 minimum wage.
Nkanga, a former military administrator of Akwa-Ibom state, said: “Except APC wants to leave us with the conclusion that they do not
even know what restructuring means,
otherwise, we either do it right or we do not do it at all. We have been very clear about the restructuring we are talking about.
“That they gave money direct to local
government areas is not part of restructuring that we are talking about because we are not even one of those that said that they should
have three tiers of government, where federal government will be dealing directly with the local government and state government.
“To start with the 774 local government areas- how did they come about them, they just sat down, that is the military and created
them. Today, we have more local
governments in the north than the south, so how could we have accepted that. That is even aside, the restructuring we (South- South) are talking about is the same thing the
South-West is talking about through Afenifere, South-East through Ohaneze Ndi-Igbo and
Middle Belt Forum. It has three pillars and the first one that is very important to us in the Niger Delta is fiscal federalism.
“By fiscal federalism, as it was practiced in the First Republic by our founding fathers, 50 per cent was sent to the area where whatever you found was derivable from, the other 30 per cent went to the distributable
pool. At a time, it was north, east and west, and then 20 per cent for the development of the national capital, which was then Lagos.
This arrangement was that we can move from there and eventually have resource control, which is the first pillar. It was because of this that South-West was able to have free education, the late Chief Obafemi
Awolowo was able to establish the first television station and did so many things.
“In the Eastern part of Nigeria, it was not as if the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe did not understand what it was all about, but the oil they were having was not enough for them to
do all those things and not that he did not know the worth of free education.
“If you look at Niger Delta for example, development of Niger Delta is not the same as development of Kaduna or Kano states, if you want to construct a road in Niger Delta,
by the time you go 10 kilometres, you must have put almost about three to four bridges, so the cost is not the same. So when you forget that one and just share on the basis of
population, land mass, it means you have neglected a very important aspect.
“The second pillar is true federalism, we said there are about 65 items in the exclusive legislative list, which will not give the tiers, the federating units, the power to do what they should be doing. Put foreign affairs, put monetary and security there, then give the rest to the federating unit so that they can also participate in the development of the country. But they say no because they want to do everything.”
The PANDEF chair asserted: “So when we talk about devolution of power, state police and all that, it is to avoid this kind of situation where somebody will sit at one place in
Abuja, share money like Father Christmas and even like a prophet, prophesying what will happen in every part of the country. That is
unitary system and it is not what Nigerians want.”
“The third pillar is the restructuring of the federating unit, if you like you call it local and central governments or state and central governments but it does appear that people are more at ease with central and state governments. Creation of local governments should be left to the states because they are the ones paying, not just sharing, they will not
just start local governments anyhow.
“Absolutely, they are not restructuring and we have said that if we do not restructure, Nigeria will restructure itself, we have said
that over and over. Instead of doing the right thing, they have been trying to go round the corner, we talk about devolution of power, in other climes, you see federal police, state police and local government police, etc,
instead of doing that, they have been
prevaricating, today, they are talking about community policing.
“At the end of the day, we saw offshoot of regional police, Amotekun in the South-West, we know that there is insecurity but they do not want to do the right thing. I do not know what offence Nigerians have committed that it is blessed with bad leaders, they should pity
this country and allow the right thing to be done. They go round and want to do some few things from the back and it does not even work out,” he added.
It’s insulting to proponents of restructuring— Ohaneze
Ohanaeze Ndigbo and another Igbo elite group led by Prof. Uzodinma Nwala, Alaigbo Development Foundation, ADF, have also dismissed the claim by the ruling All
Progressives Congress, APC, that President Muhammadu Buhari has commenced restructuring with financial autonomy to Local
Governments and the implementation of the N30, 000 minimum wage, saying that restructuring was far more than that.
According to Ohanaeze Ndigbo, “it is either the APC are naive and don’t know the basic principles of restructuring or they are being out rightly mischievous and deliberately
insulting the proponents of restructuring. APC should know that restructuring is an idea whose time has come and there is no stopping it”.
The President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo who spoke through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Chief Emeka Attamah said that granting the local
governments financial autonomy does not translate to states or geopolitical zones being in control of their natural resources.
He said, “it is either the people claiming that are naive and don’t know the basic principles
of restructuring or they are being outrightly mischievous in which case they are deliberately insulting the proponents of restructuring.
Such people don’t wish the country well. Granting the local governments financial autonomy does not translate to states or
geopolitical zones being in control of their natural resources; it does not translate to devolution of powers to the geopolitical units in the country; it also doesn’t translate to people having equal access to employment
and justice. “What such people don’t know is that for an idea whose time has come, there is no stopping it. No one part of the country can hold others in perpetual bondage. Something must give, and it will be sooner than some people expect it”, the apex Igbo body said.
APC claim shameful, fraudulent—PDP Deputy national publicity secretary of the PDP Diran Odeyemi said the ruling party “having run out of smart arguments now make bogus claims that are not only false but baseless.”
According to him, “The restructuring Nigerians are yearning for is one that will free the states to leverage on their comparative advantage and not the approval of a minimum wage.
The PDP has always insisted that the APC has run out of smart arguments. If to them, financial autonomy for local governments is what Nigerians have been asking for in their
clamour for restructuring, we make bold to tell them that they are wrong.
“This is the way they claimed that they had technically defeated Boko Haram and yet, Nigerians are being killed on a daily basis. Nigeria is failing under their watch. It is
shameful, fraudulent to link minimum wage approval to restructuring of Nigeria. Have they even started the implementation of the new minimum wage?” he asked.
Nigerians ‘ll know when restructuring truly commences —YPP
Similarly, the Young Progressives Party, YPP, faults APC’s understanding of restructuring noting that the term has a foundational connotation to Nigeria’s evolvement as an independent, sovereign state.
National publicity secretary of the party, Comrade Egbeola Martins said, “I completely disagree with the APC as restructuring goes beyond the granting of financial autonomy to
local governments or approval of a minimum wage of N30, 000.
“Nigeria is currently structurally defective and fixing the nation goes beyond these two interventions that the APC perceived to be
the commencement of restructuring as it’s impossible to restructure without the input and support of all stakeholders.
“Restructuring means visiting the very foundation of our existence as a nation and not amending the blocks that have been used to build on that foundation. It’s only when foundational issues that border on devolution of powers, resource control and system of government are addressed with the input of
all stakeholders that the APC-led government can claim to have commenced the process
of restructuring.
“In any case, the so called financial
autonomy is currently not implemented neither has the increment of minimum wage translated into better standard of living for Nigerians as any gain the government ought to have made through the increment of minimum wage to N30, 000 has been eroded
with the increment in Value Added Tax, VAT, pump price of petrol, electricity tariff, stamp duty, rent, transportation and food to mention
but a few.
These are the direct outcome of deception and lack of sincerity by our so called leaders to address our foundational problems. When restructuring truly commences, Nigerians will know without the APC government trying to explain it to us because it will address the cost of governance, high level of corruption
and insecurity,” he added.
Restructuring more fundamental than that —ADF
ADF, on its part reminded APC that
restructuring was more fundamental than that, saying it believes in the reconstitution of the federation in such a way that there would be
regional autonomy.
Speaking through its spokesman, Hon. Abi Onyike, ADF said that “restructuring Nigeria is
more fundamental than that. “We in ADF believe in the reconstitution of the federation
in such a way that there would be regional autonomy. The federating units or Ethnic Nationalities making up Nigeria should be autonomous and have capacity to assert their
rights to self—determination. Granting of autonomy to Local Governments is not the duty of the Federal Government.
Moreover, the Federal Government has no power to create local Governments in a true federation. Every region or federating unit
should determine their local government system. Even the so-called autonomy granted to Local Governments is merely on paper.
The emperor governors have sabotaged the effort. They still plunder the councils’
resources with impunity”, ADF stated.
Devolve more powers to states —SDP Like the PDP, national chairman of the Social Democratic Party and former Minister of Education, Professor Tunde Adeniran wondered what minimum wage increment
has to do with the clamour for restructuring as a means of getting the nation back on her feet. “Local government autonomy is in the
direction of restructuring but imposition of a minimum wage nationwide is not,” he said
even as he called on incumbent
administration to devolve more powers to the component state governments in line with the
principle of federalism.
APC’s understanding of restructuring warped
—Afenifere
Also, spokesperson of Afenifere, Pan Yoruba socio-political group, Yinka Odumakin, in his reaction said, “If what this govt claimed to be the content of its restructuring is what it has stated, it must have a totally warped idea of what we are talking about. The subject is about return to Federalism and the only thing
we see daily is the deepening of its anti-federal measures.
A member of 2014 National Confab and former commissioner in Ondo state, Chief Olusola Ebiseni said “Nigeria is diseased without restructuring. Therefore the treatment of only what the APC and the Buhari government consider as symptoms thereof will not suffice. It is only in a jaundiced federation bedeviled by military centralist
mentality that the government of the
federation will revel in the illogical
interference in local government affairs. In the federal arrangement of the first Republic, the Action Group government of the Western
Region was the first to introduce the idea of a minimum wage which could even be higher than that of the central government depending on its revenue.
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