FORMER vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has declared that the All Progressives Congress, APC-led administration had failed Nigerians since it was yet to fulfil its ‘change’ promised during the election campaign in 2015. This is even as the special adviser to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, National Caretaker Committee chairman, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, on Reconciliation and Conflict Management, Senator Ighoyota Amori has said the call to save Nigeria had never been louder, clear and conspicuous in the history of the nation than as it is today, even as he stressed that Nigerians were yearning for a change that would guarantee true and good governance.
According to him, the only democratic party in Nigeria that can remove this nation from the current economic mess is the PDP, and that the gateway to achieve these feet was by embracing painstaking dialogue and brace up ahead of the 2019 general elections in order to take back power.
Atiku, who made the declaration at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN, in a lecture series organised by the Senior Staff Club of the university, told a large crowd made up of academics, students, politicians, Igbo leaders, among others, that Nigeria had failed to realise her potentials as a result of refusal of the political leaders to restructure the country. “Restructuring will help to bring the benefits of change we promised the people in the last election which we have not seen. We need restructuring in order to address the challenges that hold us back; these problems will remain unaddressed unless we restructure. “Issue of restructuring is beyond resource control; there are more important issues. In my own vision, restructuring will not make some states richer and some poorer; it is a win-win situation for all the states.
Nigeria will derive more revenue after restructuring,” he declared. Those present at the event included former governors, Chief Okwesilieze Nwodo, Obong Victor Atttah, Ohanaeze President Nnia Nwodo,Afenifere spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, among others. In a remark, Nwodo, who chaired the event, said at no point have we had the kind of political tension we have today; it is in time like this that leaders exhume courage.” He advocated for a constitution that would reflect the wishes of the people, stressing that the people of Nigeria subscribed to previous constitutions because they had no choice. Amori, who was speaking while playing host to PDP women wing who paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja, admonished the party members to keep faith with the party. He stated, “PDP is poised to wrestle power from the ruling party.
Our party will take over power in 2019 because Nigerians have seen the difference between us and the others and the choice of who to follow will be obvious in the next election.” The former Delta Central senator maintained that the current administration had deepened the level of poverty of Nigerians “and we need to come together as a family to restore hope back to Nigerians. The tasked, he said, would be enormous but with unity of purpose, it is a tin matter. According to him, “Let not your heart be troubled. Let no man’s heart fail him or her on how we will get back power. The current hardship in the country would have been averted if PDP was in power.” Amori, who expressed the determination of the Makarfi leadership in restoring the lost glory of the party, said all hands were on deck in returning all former members of the party back to the fold for the collective interest of the party, in order to dislodge the ruling party in the forthcoming general elections.
“PDP is the only political party that practices internal democracy, which believe in equal rights, values our cultural diversities and respect for our religious varieties. As a political party that believes in free and fair election for sustaining democratic legitimacy, we have no iota of doubt that leadership must change hands in no distant time.
While we wait let us build our unity based as a people of one common value,” he called. Similarly, a chieftain of the APC, Dr Ezekiel Izuogu has expressed disappointment in his party’s refusal to heed to the
