BEVERLY HILLS, February 21, (THEWILL) – Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olabode George has said that Nigeria is on the brink and that there is the urgent need to restructure the Nigeria entity to ensure its survival as a nation.
George said there are so many aberrations thwarting equitable governance in Nigeria.
He said: “The Centre is too encumbered with many responsibilities. It is overburdened, stressed with unnecessary functions that ought to be devolved to the states.
“Our federation is only a federation in name. It is more of a unitary system, barking out command and control like a military hierarchy.
‘This is not how Democracies operate. This is not how true Federating units’ function.
“We must loosing the overarching power at the centre and return more responsibilities to the states”.
George said given more power to the states is the normative pattern all over the world. “And why should our own be different? We must re-evaluate and mode our structures of governance to be more representative of the will of the people”.
ALSO READ: Provide Leadership, Bring Nigerians Together, Bode George Tells Buhari… Wants Lekki Toll Gates Dismantled
He said though governments are elected to guarantee the pursuit of happiness, to ensure the protection of personal liberties, to create an atmosphere where all citizens can carry out their economic livelihoods without being subjected to oppression or being savaged by the lawlessness of incendiary actors, but lamented that sadly for Nigerians they are living in an increasingly dysfunctional society where the structures of power are un-representative, skewed in unitary bias, devoid of democratic balance.
“Governance everywhere is fast losing its grip on the First Principles of protecting lives and properties. From Sokoto to Lagos, from Ebonyi to Borno, from Katsina to Ogun and from the Savannah to the rain forest, lives are daily cut down without the culprits being brought to pay for their crimes. Road users are kidnapped, brutalised, exposed to all un-imaginable kinds of cruelty and then forced to pay ransom. All over the country lives are no longer being treasured. Nothing is sacred”, he said.
George who said Nigeria must withdraw from the brink said the widening spread of banditry, the reckless shedding of innocent blood, the bitter murderous clashes between farmers and herdsmen, the loose brigandary have virtually made all corners of our society insecure, vulnerable to the rule of the cudgel and machete.
On the reopening of Lekki Toll Gate, George said the panel set up by Lagos State Government to look into the Endsars tragedy has “demonstrated an unconscionable totality in the inexplicable, hurried, greedy, selfish, inhumane, outrageous and immoral decision to re-open the Lekki Toll Gates while the blood of the Lekki martyrs are crying out for justice.
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.
