Nigeria overheating ahead of 2019 polls, party warns
• Restructuring will curb challenges, says elder statesman
• Osinbajo, Tinubu optimistic on Buhari’s policies
The Democratic Peoples Congress (DPC) has cautioned politicians not to overheat the polity. Its national chairman, Rev. Olusegun Peters, gave the warning in a statement in Abuja, yesterday.
Nigeria is at the crossroads and needs the prayers of all compatriots to navigate this trying time in its political process, he said.
“The need to build a strong, virile, progressive and equitable democratic society cannot be overemphasised and requires the efforts, sacrifice and patriotism of the populace. DPC urges politicians to seek the interest and progress of the nation at all times and avoid overheating the polity, which could impede our hard-won democracy,” he noted.
An elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, meanwhile, has said only restructuring would solve the security challenges in the country.
Clark, a former Minister of Information, said the current centralised security architecture is incapable of responding swiftly to problems in all parts of the country.
Nigeria must, therefore, restructure to allow for the creation of state police and other grassroots policing options, he said.
“The security challenges the country is currently facing will be overcome if we adopt restructuring. This is because the issue of security is local and we cannot have effective security cover when everything is done from the centre. A major ingredient of restructuring is state police and it is when we have this and other community policing options that we can have proper security,” he said.
But sounding optimistic, the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, said the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration is the foundation for re-engineering and reinvigorating Nigeria’s economy for a better future.
He made the remark in Lagos yesterday during the Eid-el-Kabir celebration.
“We need a President Buhari to retool and re-engineer. That is what he is doing in the economy, and he is doing it gradually, otherwise we don’t want it to fall apart again. Continuity, perseverance, and endurance, those are what we need. Our determination is progress for the country and for the people. We can’t go back,” he said.
Also, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo insisted the Federal Government would continue to focus on the common man because of its determination to take Nigerians out of poverty through social investment initiatives.
He stated this during a town hall meeting in Bariga/Somolu Local Council Development Area (LCDA) in Lagos State where he felicitated with Lagosians on Eid-el-Kabir.
Addressing APC chieftains in the state, youth groups, state officials and the LCDA chairmen of Somolu and Bariga, Osinbajo noted that the government’s National Social Investment Programmes (N-SIPs) are geared towards improving the welfare of ordinary Nigerians.
A statement by the vice president’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, quoted Osinbajo as saying the government has been able to embark on the completion of more infrastructure projects and achieved more with less funds because of Buhari’s honesty and the seriousness of the administration to improve the country’s fortunes.
“The president’s focus has always been on the common man. So, when we came, we decided on a few things to tackle youth unemployment. First, the N-Power programme to engage as many young people who are graduates as possible. We started with 200,000, and just this month, we have employed another 300,000.
“So, in our N-Power programme, we have 500,000 young graduates who are employed in the programme. Now, every local government in Nigeria has N-Power graduate.”
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