A chieftain of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), Mr. Ayo Opadokun, has appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take steps to restore Nigeria to constitutional governance.
Opadokun, erstwhile secretary of Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, urged President Tinubu to leave a worthy legacy behind by taking measures to see to the implementation of “our restoration to constitutional governance as recommended by the Nasir el-Rufai panel.”
The NADECO chieftain spoke to reporters in his country home, Offa in Kwara State on the sidelines of this year’s Christmas Carol he organised.
The theme of the carol is: ‘Praising our saviour.’
Said he: “In its congratulatory letter to the president after his victory at the Supreme Court, NADECO urged the president to implement the manifesto his party, All Progressives Congress (APC), presented to the public before they were elected into office.
“Because then President Muhammadu Buhari did not implement the manifesto during his tenure, we campaigned vigorously for its implementation.
“As a result, the Buhari administration set up a panel headed by the then governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai and the panel recommended devolution of power to the states. The panel equally recommended fiscal federalism.
“It also recommended that states that so wish should be allowed to merge. Another thing it recommended is the creation of state police.
Therefore, we are asking President Tinubu to take immediate steps to implement the panel’s reports.
“I know that Tinubu has the capacity to lift people out of the current untenable and unacceptable level of poverty.
“The much more fundamental matter is the restoration of Nigeria to the federal constitutional arrangement upon which we secured our independence, which the Army subverted, abrogated and substituted with a unitary-centralist government.
Nigeria has been living a lie by calling itself a federal government. We are nothing of such. Since January 15, 1966 we have been lying to the whole world and lying to ourselves.
“This is why federal constitutional arrangement is the most suitable for Nigeria. Until we return to it, nothing will happen to our country.
“Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was part of us in the trenches. We were together in the trenches. The current Fourth Republic was not secured on gold platter. We paid for it by our sweat, blood, freedom. Some people were detained for several years inclusive of me. My first detention lasted 24 calendar months. “They picked me up again. I was in Ikoyi prison when General Sani Abacha died. Some of us were killed.
“President Tinubu, who was part of us in the trenches, knows what we were fighting for— that is restoration of democracy and federal constitutional arrangement.
“The situation we find ourselves is that no matter how willing, how desirous President Tinubu may want to change the current situation, he is handicapped.
“This is because all that we are witnessing is the culmination of prolonged years of wrongly-headed economic policies initiated, promoted and financed by the military and their surrogates. You cannot withdraw them one day and change the situation for the better. That is the unfortunate situation we have found ourselves.”
Credit: thenationonlineng.net
