₦airaland Forum

Last week, President Muhammadu Buhari hosted some prominent sons and daughters of Yoruba, which gave its idea of how the country should go. LEON USIGBE writes on the session.



Even though many in the South-West do not regard them as authentic Afenifere, President Muhammadu Buhari welcomed the Reuben Fasoranti faction of the Yoruba sociocultural group to the presidential villa, Abuja, Tuesday, last week with open arms. They were guided there by the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and regular face at the seat of power, Senator Bola Tinubu, supported by the likes of former governor of Ogun State, Olusegun Osoba; immediate past governor of Oyo State, Abiola Ajimobi; Senator Dayo Adeyeye, Pius Akinyelure. Chief Kemi Nelson, and Laoye Tomori. Chief Olabiyi Durojaiye, who is the chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), was the spokesman for the group, enunciating its positions on many critical issues and making demands.

Durojaiye started by reminding President Buhari of the role played by the South West in returning him to power for a second tenure. He said: “We are proud of our contributions to your victory through the Yoruba Summit Conference held at the University of Ibadan International Conference Centre on January 29, 2019. There, we passed a well-applauded motion urging all the people of Western Nigeria origin of voting age to vote for your re-election by virtue of your people-oriented and welfarist APC political programmes and performance and performance.

“We are happy the people complied. Attached to this script is a copy of our motion for your support and congratulatory message published in the Nation newspaper on 28th May, 2019.”

The requests the groups made to the President during the visit were on security, education, youth employment, federalism, power supply and agriculture. On security, Durojaiye told Buhari that the huge cost not-withstanding, the administration needed to the take a bold step in combating crime by improving on the apparent shortage of the manpower in the Nigeria Police Force and by extending control of the police from the state to local government level. “By this, we humbly suggest that Mr President should reflect deeply and consider recruitment, training, equipment and deployment of Nigerian police on the basis of the 774 local governments listed in the First Schedule of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” Beyond that, he suggested that the general public should be trained on the need to improve on their individual vigilance and awareness of movement of strangers in their neighbourhoods.

The team wanted a return to Free Universal and Compulsory Education as was practised with remarkable success in some parts of Nigeria in the past. The group therefore admonished the president to consider re-introducing the programme and making it compulsory at all levels and all over the country “as a lasting gift to Nigeria in his final term in office.” It pointed out that one of the benefits of free and compulsory education that would encompass Basic, Technical, Skill Acquisition, Digitalization and ICT Programmes, would be youth employment.

The group also threw its weight behind the call for true federalism as a way to build a greater nation. “We seriously recommend clinging to the spirit and letters of our Federal Constitution. This is one sure way of achieving the desired goal of unity even in diversity, mutual respect, tolerance and giving true meaning to the opening phrase of our Constitution that is, ‘We the people.’ We will be a greater nation if we sincerely practise true federalism and think and act as Nigerians rather than as champions of the smaller units we were born into. Our big size is an asset worthy of preservation. Good examples of big size, hard work and prudent spending are the USA, China and India. It is not with violence or hate speeches but with mutual trust, self-respect and tolerance that we will speedily achieve the lofty destiny of this great country, Nigeria.”

The group told the president to do more on agriculture, especially in the field of afforestation, irrigation and revival of agricultural product like cocoa, groundnut, cotton, palm products and processing them for domestic consumption and export. In the same way, the organisation called for the doubling of efforts to improve electricity supply to improve on the pace of industrialization, productivity and more comfort for all Nigerians.

On his part, Tinubu explained that the visit was to congratulate the president on his recent re-election and to explore ways to keep the county safe. His words: “The essence of the meeting is to thank the president, congratulate him on the election and the first step on the security of the country, to really see a way out to stem any speech of hate; intolerance across the nation and look at the problem of security holistically and from the grass roots level; including the fact there is a shortage of police personnel and there is the need to look at the recruitment from 774 local governments and be able to effectively have information. It takes time to train people; you equally create employment from such an action; I mean employment for the people and strengthen security intelligence from the grass roots.”

On whether Yoruba elders were united in support of President Buhari, the APC national leader said: “Sure. I don’t want to be clannish or sectional. The question is that we want to build a nation and always believe in our diversity for prosperity not from adversity and progressives like the president will join hands to build the country. No matter what, we have nothing but one country and that is the only way that we can stimulate growth and understanding among various nationalities; it is not by division; it is not by promoting religious conflict; religious differences. Nobody has control when they were born; what they will be, how they will be raised and how their fate will affect their lives and we must remove that from our political setting; set it aside, build a nation and concentrate on trust and development.”

The highpoint of the visit was the president’s rationalization of the treatment he meted out to retired Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, who he said he dealt with even though reluctantly for having in his possession undeclared foreign and local currencies. This was to prove his determination to rid the country of corruption. The president said: “But anybody who cannot account for what he has and for refusing to declare, we will have to do something about it. I will tell you as Afenifere, that was why I had to deal, though reluctantly, with the former Chief Justice because there were millions of dollars, euros, not to talk of naira which were not declared. I wonder what sort of conscience some of us have. How can you seat and preside and lock people up for years and even sentence some to death and yet you are not doing what the constitution says you should do by occupying that vital institution. So, I stopped getting worried so much. Sorry to admit it, when I found out that I could play hoop, step and jump. What I mean is that if it is America, they would do it this way. If it were in Europe, they will do this way but if you go there after 250 to 400 years, how old are we? So I realize that I don’t want to go back to into detention again.”

Buhari, who recalled how as a military leader he clamped suspected looters into detention until they proved themselves innocent, said that these days, suspects deny their properties until they are shown their bank accounts. He maintained that he has decided that properties seized from suspects would be sold and the money kept in the treasury to prevent future administrations from returning them to their owners. Buhari added: “Now, what I do is when a person cannot justify what he has or fails to declare as the constitution specifies, some of them swear to almighty God that their properties do not belong to them until we show them their bank accounts and their companies then we have some peace. So, we are recovering as much as we can under the system and this time around I said the properties will be sold and the money put in the treasury. The last time they were given back their properties but this time around whoever comes after me, no matter how generous he is, cannot take money from the treasury and give it to individuals. It will be impossible.”

The president also recalled his campaign promises and the effort his administration had made to meet them with success and thanked his visitors, saying: “So, institutions like yours when you have secured your constituency constitutionally and materially, you can help establish this country. And really this country needs you and you need this country with the future generation because of the population explosion we are going through and the limited resources and the deficits of infrastructure.”

The visit has not gone unnoticed by the opposition, particularly Buhari’s use of the opportunity to slate Onnoghen. The national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, saw it as the president continuing his persecution of the judiciary rather than tackling the corruption in his administration. In his reaction to the president’s remark on Onnoghen, the party boss in a statement by his media adviser, Ike Abonyi, admonished the president to look inwards at his “stinking executive and stop the hostility and ill treatment of the nation’s judiciary. Secondus regretted what he saw as “President Buhari’s continued show of hostile behaviour on the nation’s judiciary as exemplified in his unwarranted and unprovoked attacks on the former Chief Justice of the Federation CJN, Justice Walter Nkanu Onnoghen.”

He noted that the president’s aversion for the judiciary was becoming very apparent, dangerous and antithetical to democratic norms, saying: “He has continued to bemoan his past with the judiciary by displaying his unconcealed anger and unforgiving desire to take a pound of flesh on them.” He remarked that the motive behind the endless attacks on the judiciary by the president, especially last Tuesday’s “narration of his so-called ordeal with the courts is strategically designed to cow them into submission to his undemocratic desires.” Secondus said that “even among Buhari’s audience where he was lampooning the judiciary were persons whose questionable source of wealth is not unknown; yet he pretends not to be aware because it favours his political interest. We all know it as a fact that the motive of the president in his countless berating of the Judiciary at the slightest moment is deliberately designed to frighten them, take away their confidence and force them to submit to his wishes by intimidation,” the statement added.

Secondus described as preposterous and highly unacceptable what he said was the continuous ridiculing of the highly revered arm of government “just because they did not dance to your selfish tune at some point” as he urged all lovers of democracy in the country to rise up in defence of this critical arm of government “which gets bashing from an executive arm that seeks absolute power from the back door.” He went further to note that the double standards apparent in the administration of President Buhari manifested glaringly when “he ceaselessly berates the judiciary and turns blind eye to the monumental corruption going on in the executive arm.” Secondus therefore charged members of the judiciary not to abdicate their responsibilities in the sustenance of democracy and “refuse to be intimidated, but to insist on delivering justice in the land knowing that it is the only route to growth and development.”

The highpoint of the visit was the president’s rationalization of the treatment he meted out to retired Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, who he said he dealt with even though reluctantly for having in his possession undeclared foreign and local currencies. This was to prove his determination to rid the country of corruption

kabayomi:
Too long didn't read

PS: I wonder why person go copy full 3 page article post...what happened to summarizing?
Summarize put link. If we want to know more we will visit the site

maidaddy:
sufferingly long

OBAGADAFFI:
Even though many in the South-West do not regard them as authentic Afenifere, President Muhammadu Buhari welcomed the Reuben Fasoranti faction of the Yoruba sociocultural group to the presidential villa, Abuja, Tuesday, last week with open arms.

So who are the authentic Afenifere?

APC divide and conquer rule in the SW will backfire one day.

Thank goodness OYO woke-up on time.

Kundagarten:
This same dullard didn't watch the video of Gandollar stuffing his babanriga with dollars abi?

straighttalk:
Source of headache for IPOBs