BEVERLY HILLS, April 11, (THEWILL) – The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governorship Forum rose from its meeting in Makurdi Thursday and condemned what it called the alarming drift of Nigeria.
The governors in a communique issued at the end of the meeting and signed by the Chairman, PDP Governors Forum and Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, said if the situation is allowed to continue, it will make Nigeria a failed state under the watch of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), government.
They expressed deep concern over the deteriorating relations between various groups in Nigeria.
The governors expressed worry that, indeed, “all our fault lines and differences are being stretched to the limit by a government that clearly lacks the capacity to govern”. The meeting agreed that this has given rise to ethnic and tribal tensions, religious divisions, and various forms of social and political cleavages.
They concluded that Nigeria is in dire need of leadership at the Federal level to avert the looming disaster.
The meeting similarly raised the alarm, “that security of lives and property of Nigerians are no longer guaranteed under the present government as a result of leadership incompetence and mismanagement of the nation’s affairs. While noting that governors have a role to play in the handling of some of the worsening situations, they regretted that their hands were tied as the entire coercive authority in the country is monopolised by the APC federal government.
“Time has come to take advantage of the ongoing Constitution Amendment process to decentralise the security architecture of Nigeria and involve States and Local Governments”, the Governors said.
The governors reaffirmed their conviction that an urgent devolution of powers and restructuring of the country in a way that brings together various groups and tendencies in the country have become timely now as Nigeria cannot afford another civil war.
“ We call on the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission to send a new Revenue Allocation Formula that allocates more resources to States and Local Governments to Mr President for National Assembly’s action. It is a scandal that 21 years after the 1999 Constitution came into being, no new Revenue Formula is in place. Furthermore, the meeting called for a more transparent and accountable running and operation of the NNPC”.
The meeting further condemned the intimidation of sitting governors by the APC administration using all sorts of weapons like security agencies, unequal access to federal resources, promotion of divisions in the opposition political parties with fake promises and falsehoods.
“We significantly condemn the double standards that are applied by the APC-led federal government to intimidate PDP controlled states. To this end, we call on Mr. President to lift the so called “No flight Zone” and other intimidating tactics, imposed on Zamfara State as similar measures have not been extended to similar states with security challenges like Kaduna, Borno, Katsina, Yobe and others. This is mostly politically motivated to ensure that the Governors move over to APC.
It also said that the APC has been unable to even have a democratically-elected National Executive Committee as required by the Nigerian Constitution, saying it is a party that operates by military fiat with an appointed and unelected Executive Committee at all levels, from Ward to National.
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
