Let Buhari’s aides educate him on restructuring, says Uranta

•Aare Onakakanfo condemns Plateau killings
Executive Secretary of the Nigeria National Summit Group (NNSG), Mr. Tony Uranta, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari’s lieutenants in the Presidency and Nigeria Council of State (NCS) to help in advising and educating their principal on the importance of the popular demand for the restructuring of the country to true federalism.

Uranta spoke while reacting to Buhari’s recent remarks to visiting traditional rulers and leadership of the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) and members of All Progressives Congress (APC) from Delta State, in the Villa on Monday, that some of the views being canvassed by interest groups on restructuring were not properly coordinated and did not align with constitutional provisions.

The President had during the visit said the calls for the restructuring of the country were laced with parochial interests; hence he did not heed them.

However, in his reaction, Uranta said: “Remember that the President, from 1983 to 2018, has not hidden his disdain for towing lines of conventional wisdom; be it in bucking contemporary positions by not being both gender-accommodating, even whilst standing beside one of the world’s most powerful women leaders; or, declaring a governance divide between regions that voted for or against him in 2015.

“But, I would have expected that even his most hawkish advisers would have helped President Buhari not to appear less caring about what the majority of electorates in four out of Nigeria’s six regions seem to want, that is restructuring. Coming only days after his Vice, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, told Nigeria that the administration is pro-restructuring, the President’s opposing position again brings into question the unity of purpose of this too-divided administration.”

Uranta said he would continue to, like most forward-looking Nigerians, be more selflessly committed to ensuring that Nigeria becomes urgently restructured!

He added: “Only Restructuring can guarantee Nigeria’s sustainable unity, optimally maximise the country’s economic potentials and speedily end the sadly increasing genocidal actions currently poisoning our unity.”

Uranta, who is also one of the leaders of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), commiserated with Nigerians over the recent killing of more than 100 people by suspected armed herdsmen in Plateau State.

Similarly, the National Coordinator of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) and the Aare Onakankanfo of Yoruba Land, Otunba Gani Adams, condemned the killings in strong terms, describing the development as a threat to Nigeria’s peace, unity and a dangerous signal to the corporate existence of the country.

He said the murder of innocent Nigerians by suspected killer herdsmen was one killing too many, even as he condemned the act and urged President Buhari, to do everything possible to make Nigeria safe for the citizenry.

In a statement, by his Special Assistant on Media, Kehinde Aderemi, the Aare Onakankanfo declared: “In all the developed countries across the world, security of lives and property is prominent to the government.

“The situation where about 200 innocent people got killed in a country is too much and unacceptable to us as a people. The figures in all these killings keep increasing day by day, however, the recent attack in Plateau was disturbing, and we cannot continue to live in denial. We cannot pretend not to know that the security situation in the country is begging for urgent attention and solution. By saying all is well with us as a nation is to live in denial.”

Adams regretted that the Nigerian government was not doing enough on the security situation in the country, saying every reasonable Nigerian must condemn the acts of ruthlessness.

He also flayed the response of leaders of the Miyetti Allah association to the killings, as retaliation to the killings of over 300 cows belonging to them and dismissed the proposal by the Federal Government to spend N70b of 2018 budget on the establishment of ranches in 10 states, saying the move was a misplacement of priority.

“The Yoruba don’ t always forget history in a hurry. Our experience in Yoruba land between 1824 and 1835 was a sad reminder. However, there are better solutions to the issues of herdsmen attacks and killings, other than the establishment of ranches in states.

“A situation where the Federal Government spends N70 billion of the budget on the establishment of ranches is not too good for the nation’s economy,” he added.