Allow true federalism to stand, Afenifere tells Buhari

…I punished Onnoghen for wrong declaration of assets – President

Mathew Dadiya, Abuja

Pan Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to allow true federalism to take a stand in the present scheme of governance.

The socio-cultural group said that one of the true ways of strengthening the unity of the country would be to allow the implementation of a true federal state – where there is equality for all.

Afenifere made the appeal on Tuesday when they visited the President at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The delegation led by Pa Ayo Fasanmi and the National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said: “On federalism, 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 practice 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”.

Tasking the President on the need to step up mechanism for addressing security challenges, they advised Buhari to improve 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 774 Local Governments listed in the First Schedule of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the Group told the President in plain words.

As a way of proffering solution to the challenge, Senator Olabiyi Durojaiye, who formed part of the delegation, said the newly elected governors from the South West extraction have mapped out strategies to help in eradicating kidnapping and other crimes such as banditry.

Durojaiye said: “Mr. President Sir, please permit me one more observation on the issue of security. In apparent desire to supplement your efforts, the newly elected Governors of Western Nigeria extraction, have this very day, Tuesday the 25th June 2019, held a meeting in Ibadan to map out strategies to eradicate kidnapping and violent attacks.

They and other states will surely need more financial subvention and support”.

Afenifere also told the President that they were appreciative of the idea to declare June 12 as national democracy day, adding that the naming of the National Stadium in Abuja after Chief MKO Abiola, was the icing on the cake for the Yoruba nation.

Meanwhile, President Buhari has opened up on the reasons behind his suspension of the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, hinging it on huge funds traced to his account which he failed to give detailed explanation.

Onnoghen, who recently turned up his resignation letter which was not accepted by the presidency until May 28, just a day to the President’s second term inauguration, was succeeded by Justice Ibrahim Tanko Mohammed.

Buhari, who was speaking on his modest efforts at curbing corruption in the country, said Onnoghen had no justification sitting in judgement of other accused persons when he could not account for funds under his coffers.

“I will tell you as Afenifere, that was why I had to deal though reluctantly with the former Chief Justice of Nigeria 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 said you should do by occupying that vital institution.

“So, I stopped getting worried so much, sorry to admit it when I found out that could play hoop, stop and jump, what I mean is that if it is America they will do it this way, if it were in Europe they will do it this way, but if you go there after 250 to 400 years, how old are we? So I realised that I don’t want to go back into detention again.

“So institution 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 President said.

Rather than providing direct answers to the request for true federalism, Buhari reminded his guests that he campaigned on security, economy and anti-corruption which earned him victory in 2015.

He said these areas he based his policies are basic because “we cannot secure our country or an institution unless we secure it”.

His words: “What was happening in the north east and is still happening to some degree in the north central or the south west, is true that we have made some progress but there are still some problems and those problems we are trying to solve them within our physical and material resources.

“On the economy, we are very lucky that majority or the bigger part of the country in the north, where there is concentration of young and educated able bodied persons with nothing to do, is to go encourage agriculture. That we did by providing inputs, fertilizers at half the price than it used to be”.

Tinubu, who later fielded questions from State House correspondents, said they merely came to thank the President and congratulate him on the re-election as well as 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 grassroots level.

He re-echoed the advice they gave the President on policing the country and how he should tilt his administrative policies going forward.

“The next level is broad. You have economic progress that we are working for as a party; we have the diversity of the economy itself; we have the various scale of thinking that the economic council will have to bring about; the infrastructural deficit; poverty, security;

those are the things that we will put emphasis on; you know it; I know it; there is infrastructural deficit across the country and without infrastructure, you cannot galvanise the economy; you have the question of electricity that is critical to industrialization and economic growth,” the APC National Leader said.