Niyi Odebode, Olusola Fabiyi, Eniola Akinkuotu, Adelani Adepegba and Olaleye Aluko
The Peoples Democratic Party; the Campaign for Democracy; the Ijaw Youth Council and a chieftain of the pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, have berated President Muhammadu Buhari over his recent comment on the clamour for restructuring.
The PDP, the CD, the IYC, in separate interviews with Saturday PUNCH, accused the President and the All Progressives Congress of deceit.
Buhari had, while receiving a delegation of Urhobo Traditional Rulers, the leadership of the Urhobo Progressive Union and members of the APC from Delta State at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Monday, said that all the groups clamouring for restructuring had their personal agenda.
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The APC, had in 2017, set up a committee headed by the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, to look into the demand for restructuring in the country.
The committee submitted its report to the immediate National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, on January 26, 2018.
Buhari has exposed APC’s lies –PDP
Criticising the APC and Buhari, the PDP accused them of lying to Nigerians about restructuring.
The main opposition party said that the APC was taking Nigerians for a ride when it promised to embark on restructuring the country.
National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus, who stated this in an interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja, said, “President Buhari has further exposed the lies we all know the APC for. Their so-called plan to do restructuring was anchored on deceit. It was never meant to be fruitful. It was meant to deceive Nigerians, especially the people of the South who have been asking for it.
“When they set up the committee, we said that it was a ruse. We told Nigerians not to expect anything good from them.
“The leadership of the party, the Presidency and even the President knew that they were just wasting public funds, moving from one part of the country to the other when in the real sense they were not ready to abide by the decisions of the people.
“Now, the President has come out openly to say members of his party, and Nigerians who are asking for restructuring are labouring in vain.
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“That’s nice. It is good because he has come out to say what we all knew before, but he cannot deceive Nigerians again with fake promises.”
Adebanjo questions Buhari’s integrity
On his part, Adebanjo questioned the integrity of the President over his recent statement on restructuring.
Adebanjo, who is one of the proponents of restructuring, said Buhari was being dishonest. The 90-year-old statesman said when Afenifere endorsed Buhari when he was contesting the Presidency in 2007; he never questioned the motives of those clamouring for restructuring.
He added that when Buhari was running alongside Tunde Bakare in 2011, he never questioned the intentions of those clamouring for restructuring.
He said, “Let Buhari speak more responsibly. Who is he insulting by that statement? This is an issue we have been talking about for many years. When he was contesting elections in 2007 and Afenifere supported him, he didn’t question our agenda.
“This is the same restructuring we were talking of when Bakare was his running mate in 2011. Didn’t he agree at that time? Restructuring was also one of the promises of the APC in 2015.
“His utterances are not consistent with the integrity he claims to possess. It is a shame for him to speak like that as the head of state. This is someone who we had been engaging with since 2007. Is he saying I have a hidden agenda? Why didn’t he say that when we were supporting him? Did Bakare have a hidden agenda in 2011?”
Adebanjo expressed doubts over the ability of Buhari to implement the resolutions of the APC restructuring committee headed by el-Rufai.
“Making that statement puts his integrity to question. Does it also mean that the restructuring committee of the APC has ulterior motives?” Adebanjo asked.
The Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, through its spokesman, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, dismissed Buhari’s statement, saying, “The only group that can say Nigerians have a personal agenda in demanding restructuring is the APC of which he (Buhari) is a member.
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“When they thought it would help them to win elections, they put it in their manifesto, but when they got to power, they did not know the meaning again. It is he who has a narrow and selfish agenda, which he used in winning election and then dumped it.”
Odumakin recalled that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo declared a day before the APC National Convention last week that the party would restructure the nation, a claim he said the President shot down because he had used the clamour for restructuring to get power.
Nigeria overdue for restructuring –CD, IYC
Also, the IYC and the CD criticised Buhari for the comments on restructuring.
The IYC President, Oweilaemi Pereotubo, said, “I do not agree with the President for referring to agitators of restructuring as selfish. It is unfortunate that the President made such remarks. I urge the President to start the restructuring process. There is no hidden agenda anywhere and we from the Niger Delta region will continue to pursue restructuring.”
The CD President, Usman Abdul, said, “Restructuring is neither a regional nor an ethnic uprising. Restructuring is the way for us to go on resource financing, control, productivity and other critical areas of our national development. It is overdue. So why is the President digressing the discourse?”
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