Buhari, el-Rufai, Lai Mohammed, others against
Nigeria’s restructuring – Afenifere
ON June 30, 2017 6:40 PM / IN News,
Politics / BY Tony / Comments


The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, has
said that a census of Nigerians against restructuring
to quell the various agitations and correct the
marginalisation in the country are “President Buhari,
el-Rufai, Ango Abdullahi, Lai Mohammed and Tanko
Yakassai.”


The Yoruba group said this in reaction to a statement
credited to Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir
el-Rufai, who had said that the 2014 National
Conference report is not a sensible basis for the
Buhari-led APC government to use and correct the
imbalance in the country.

Recall that in the statement credited to the Kaduna
state governor, he was quoted as saying that the APC
has an already step-by-step plan which differs from
the recommendations of the 2014 Confab to solve
Nigeria’s problems of marginalisation.


The Publicity Secretary of the Afenifere, Mr. Yinka
Odumakin who gave the statement also said that the
only way out of the current agitations in the country
was to restructure the current set-up of the nation.
He stated, “El-Rufai should tell us his own idea to
correct the imbalance in the country because as far
as we are concerned, the 2014 confab report is about
the closest to the democratic representation of
Nigeria.


“The confab consisted of representatives of all
segments of the societies in Nigeria. But for
somebody, who occupies a responsible office of a
governor to be saying those who are talking about
restructuring are irresponsible, it is very unfortunate.


“It is very sad for the governor to be talking like an
area boy on the television. In Nigeria of today, we
can now begin to take a census of those who are
against restructuring – they are President Buhari, el-
Rufai, Ango Abdullahi, Lai Mohammed and Tanko
Yakassai.


“Aside from those people, everybody in Nigeria
supports restructuring; that is the song everybody is
playing all over the country as of today, whether we
like it or not. Those who are against it are
insignificant.’’


Governor Nasir El-Rufai had, while speaking on
Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily, said that the President
Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress,
APC, party does not believe that the 2014 National
Conference report which so many stakeholders are
clamouring as basis to restructure the country is
sensible enough for the party to begin what he
termed, the already existing steps by the APC to
correct the political imbalance in the country.


The Governor who faulted the 2014 Confab in that
statement also said that those who were selected to
participate in that conference did not reflect the
demographics and diversity of Nigeria, adding that
the conference and its deliberation were lopsided.
El-Rufai had however maintained that the manifesto
of APC has all the solutions to Nigeria’s problems.
“We meet every month under the auspice of the
National Economic Council and working together with
the Federal Government we chart directions of
economic policy and that is part of shifting the
federal- state balance.


“A lot of the talk about political restructuring is
political opportunism and irresponsibility in my
opinion. “It is popular and people that have
presidential aspirations think there is a platform upon
which they will exploit this. As I said, if you look at
the APC manifesto, all the elements to divulge power
to the state to change the balance in the federation
are there and we are committed to that as a party.


“The National Chairman of our party will restate that
commitment and we are discussing it and as I said
President Buhari and Osinbajo’s government has
taken very concrete steps rather than rhetoric to
actually move in that direction and we are going to
move in that direction but we do not believe that the
basis for it is rhetoric and opportunism, we do not
believe that the 2014 CONFAB report is a sensible
basis to even begin.


“We all know the circumstances in which the so-
called CONFAB was put together, we all know the
composition, how lopsided it was, how important
stakeholders were not taken to account, how even
the composition and numbers do not reflect the
demographics and the diversity of this country and
we took a position as a party not to participate but to
encourage our state governors to be there at the
table.”

www.vanguardngr.com/2017/06/afenifere-says-nigerias-restructuring-buhari-el-rufai-ango-abdullahi-lai-mohammedtanko-yakassai/