Falana tackles APC leaders on restructuring

Human right activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Falana, has implored on those calling for restructuring of Nigeria to do so by focusing on true federalism.

Falana said this at the tributes and colloquium in honour of the late Dean of Social Sciences, Lagos State University, Prof Abubakar Mohmoh, organised by the local chapter of the Academic Staff Union in collaboration with labour and civil society organisations.

The legal luminary quoted Kaduna state governor, Mallam El’ Rufai, saying Nigerians should not mind those who are talking of restructuring saying they are only trying to play on the intelligence of Nigerian people because they want to contest presidential election.

“But I think it’s also an opportunity for us to challenge the national chairman of APC, Chief John Oyegun, who had come out publicly to say that the party never promised restructuring, I refer him to the manifesto of the APC which promised to restructure Nigeria in order to realise the federalism that our forefathers talked about.

In article 25 of that manifesto, APC said it was going to initiate programmes that will lead to the restructuring of Nigeria so that true federalism can be realized. But you know, once you get to power in Nigeria, you want to retain the status quo,” he said.

Falana said that section 130 of the constitution described the Nigerian president as the President, the Head of State, the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, and the Chief Executive Officer of the Republic, adding that there is no section of the constitution that describes governors as Executive Governors but what we have today is executive governors.

“This is where restructuring must face, Nigeria is the only country in the world where if you serve as governor for four or eight years, you will get a house in the State they govern, and even in Abuja where they never governed, medical allowance of N300 million for a year, receive the salary of governor for life, get about 10 armed policemen for life , change cars every two or three years, automatically get to Senate and collect salary in the senate, 21 of them now, former Governors and Deputies, are in the National Assembly collecting mumbus sums of money at the end of every month , employees here if you are pensioned you can’t collect full salary except you get a contract.

The renowned activist urged Nigerians to join in the debate of restructuring, saying “can we restructure the economy by taking oil blocks from individuals and give to states and local governments to manage their economies because a section of the constitution says that commanding arm of the economy shall not be privatised.”

He said Nigerians should go for the jugular of the business elites by advocating that people like Dangote, who get duty waivers at the ports, only became rich not based on productivity but waivers which other business people don’t.

He quoted the late Abubakar Mohmoh who always talked about the imposition of neo-liberalism by saying “It is high time we problematise the crisis of Nigerian States”, otherwise those boys who have taken over the social platform are going to cause problems for Nigeria like the one giving quit notice to Igbos living in the North lives here in Idi-Araba, Lagos while Kanu who is calling for Biafra has a dual citizenship of Ireland and Nigeria.

Prof Lai Olorode, in his lecture on the theme of the tributes and colloquium, titled ‘Nigeria in Crisis: Rethinking Economic Policies and Posing Alternative Developmental and Political Options,’ described crisis as a paradigm in which an old system is dead or moribund and a new one cannot be born.

He said corruption is the symptom of accumulation as a legalised myrage in Nigeria adding that if this regime is serious about corruption, it should arrest some political office holders such as former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Lagos governors Ahmed Tinubu and Raji Fashola as well as former Rivers governor, Rotimi Amaechi among others.

ASUU national president, Prof Abiodun Ogunyemi, said for losing an indefatigable scholar like Mohmoh should the union celebrate or mourn because his transition from mortality to immortality has moved on the strongest building blocks in ASUU just as the union lost Iyayi at the peak of the union’s struggle in 2013.

“For us in ASUU, we are not going to mourn but celebrate because he has left an indelible marks, left his footprints on the sand of life and has taught us many things in ASUU.”

Esther Taiwo