Former Federal Commissioner for Information and South South leader, Chief Edwin Clark, has alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari has been governing Nigeria with a feudalistic mentality since 2015.
Consequently, Clark charged Buhari to rid himself of such retrogressive scheme and restructure the country as he pledged to do during the 2015 presidential campaign.
Clarke spoke with the media on Wednesday in his Asokoro Residence, Abuja. He warned that Buhari must not allow Nigeria to break due to what he described as authoritarian attitude of the president.
Clark said: “Mr. President, I beg of you, in the name of Almighty God, I am now very close to 95 years, and on behalf of my fellow elders and our children, act now. We have no other country to call our own, no other country to go to, if Nigeria breaks due to authoritarian attitude of one individual.
“Please, retrace your steps, embrace and implement your party’s report, the El-Rufai’s APC Committee Report. Nigerians will accept it.
“The South is calling for restructuring; the North is calling for restructuring. The whole country believes in restructuring. Restructuring was also one of the key priority issues in his party’s manifesto when it was formed, and during the 2015 presidential campaigns, which he has now abandoned, on assumption of office.
“I challenge Mr. President, Muhammadu Buhari, as the defacto controller of the APC, to convoke a representative assembly or town hall meeting to consider only the APC report on restructuring, if he sincerely believes in the unity of Nigeria, where everyone is a stakeholder, not a Nigeria where only a few or one ethnic group in minority keeps displaying autocratic and emperoic stance, reminding us of what their fore-fathers did over 100 years ago, wanting to do same today.
“Of course, it is a big NO! It may be necessary here to remind Nigerians the role played by our illustrious son, late Gen. Murtala Mohammed, in the elimination of apartheid in South Africa when he was in office for only six months.
“It is, therefore, unimaginable and understandable that an officer in the government of Gen. Murtala Mohammed will be the one to create an obstacle or oppose what his former boss instituted. And this was what our beloved late General Murtala Mohammed went to South Africa to fight against.
“We cannot be slaves in our own country.
“The National Executive of the APC, in a meeting also attended by Mr. President, Muhammadu Buhari, himself as party member, accepted the report of the El-Rufai Committee, and stated that it will be sent to the National Assembly.
“However, same Mr. President has refused to take any definite action for the report to be sent to the NASS. What several Nigerians want is actually the restructuring of the country in order to douse the tensions and agitations which are almost tearing the country apart today, and is the main cause of the high insecurity being experienced.
“Nigerians are ready to accept the implementation of the 2014 National Conference, or the APC’s El-Rufai Committee Report, any of which will no doubt satisfy the generality of the Nigerian people.
“It is, indeed, shameful and unpatriotic for the leaders of APC to pretend that they have not seen the El-Rufai Committee report or even the 2014 National Conference report. Some are even shamelessly stating that they do not know what restructuring means, and allow President Muhammadu Buhari to take over total control and direction of the party’s government.
“Instead, they are more interested in whom is to take over from him in 2023, for which they pretentiously worship him like god just to gain favour. The Tinubus who brought restructuring to the manifesto of APC have not spoken because they fear that if they do, they will not be allowed to contest for the Presidency of the country, come 2023.
“For which his party, the APC, faced with stiff opposition for not implementing their promised restructuring programme. So, the party’s national executive, including President Buhari, decided to set up a committee under the chairmanship of Nasir El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna State, with other prominent party members as members.
‘’The committee called for memoranda from Nigerians, went around the country and came out with a report that buttressed restructuring. Nigeria must be ready. The prison is not only for thieves, it is also meant for those who are fighting for the interest of their country.
“Some of us are ready for treasonable trial. We’re ready to go. Nobody loves this country more than myself. Enough is enough!”
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