Afenifere decries President’s ‘destructuring’, other policy somersaults
Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, yesterday, urged President Bola Tinubu to suspend his trip to France and return home to address the ongoing killings across the country.
Afenifere, a prominent Yoruba socio-political organisation, also expressed deep concern and disappointment over the current state of Nigeria’s federation under Tinubu’s administration.
Obi’s plea on his X account came four days after the Presidency dismissed reports that Tinubu left the country to see doctors in France, insisting that it was a working visit.
Special Adviser to the President on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’, was reacting to the claim by popular activist and former Presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, who said the President’s trip to France was for medical purposes.
Tinubu’s spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, said his principal, who travelled on April 2, was expected to return to Nigeria in “about a fortnight”.
But Obi warned that the President’s continued stay in a foreign land would further exacerbate the rising wave of insecurity in the country.
He said: “I am compelled at this time in our lives as a nation to call on our retreating President’s attention to the security challenges at home, which entails that he immediately suspend his ongoing retreat in a foreign land and come home to address the overwhelming security situation across the country.
“In the two weeks you have been away, over 150 Nigerians have lost their lives to insecurity across Nigeria, especially in Plateau and Zamfara states. The repeated pipeline explosions in the Niger Delta further reflect a nation in distress. In the North East, leaders are bemoaning the return of insurgency, with troops and civilians being killed randomly. In the South East, the story is the same: killings and abductions. Amid all these, the CEO of the troubled company, called Nigeria, is retreating in faraway France from the company’s headquarters.”
ACCORDING to the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, the administration’s policies are destroying the basic structures of the federation, exacerbating vulnerabilities and stifling democratic freedoms.
In a statement yesterday, Afenifere leader, Oba Oladipo Olaita; and National Publicity Secretary, Justice Faloye, alleged that Tinubu’s administration was eroding the fundamental pillars of democratic federalism through autocratic actions, including usurpation of powers and suppression of basic rights such as freedom of speech and association.
Afenifere cited the banning of Eedris Abdulkareem’s song ‘Tell Your Papa’ as part of the administration’s disregard for dissenting voices and democratic freedoms.
It criticised the administration’s economic policies, particularly the removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the naira, which led to hyperinflation, unemployment and erosion of purchasing power.
Afenifere, therefore, called for effective security strategies to protect lives and property, as well as the establishment of state police to complement the existing internal security architecture.
