Segun Akanni, Toronto, Canada 
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has described the decision of the All Progressives Congress-led Senate to reject the bill seeking to devolve powers to states as shocking and saddening.
Atiku, who is also a chieftain of the APC, said this in a statement by his Media Office in Abuja on Thursday.
Atiku stated, “This blockage of the bill by an APC-led Senate majority is a betrayal of our party’s pre-election promises. It was an important vote and I’m shocked by some so-called progressives’ visceral and cynical opposition to restructuring.”
He also decried the reluctance of democratically-elected lawmakers to remove the insidious structural impediments to development, which decades of military rule had foisted on the nation.
According to him, instead of building the foundations for a true federation, a small group of so-called progressive senators decided to stick with the new party line, pretending they did not know what restructuring was all about, and that even if they knew, it could not be done.
“I think this is disingenuous. And I think it is a sad day for our party. But I’m confident the APC will learn the right lesson from this self-inflicted defeat, and remember the mission and mandate given to us by the people.”
He expressed the hope that lawmakers would find “the courage to stand by what is right, and not by what serves their personal vanities and political interests.”
Atiku said, “Let me be clear: Restructuring is no panacea to all our nation’s problems. But devolving resources and responsibilities from an overbearing, unresponsive, and ineffective Federal Government to the states is the first step we must make if we are serious about putting our nation back on track, and our people back to work.”
In a related development, a prominent Niger Delta leader of thought and social critic, Prof. Gordini Darah, has said that the Urhobo and other ethnic minorities in Delta State are fully in support of the ongoing campaign for the restructuring of Nigeria’s political and economic systems.
Darah said this on Thursday, while delivering the keynote address at the Annual Urhobo Foundation held at the Radisson Blue Hotel in Lagos.
He said, “The Urhobo people support the call for restructuring because we are victims of military rule, which diverted our wealth of oil and gas to develop other parts of the country. The Urhobo have assumed the activist role in the campaign because we are egalitarian by nature and are committed to the restoration of federalism, equity and justice in Nigeria.”
Explaining why it was necessary for the ethnic group to pit its tent in the camp of those advocating restructuring, Darah said that Nigeria’s political and administrative mechanisms were no longer adequate for running a multi-ethnic and culturally diverse country of her type.
He described the call as an opportunity for all freedom-loving people, including the Urhobo, to rally together in defence of equity, justice and true federalism.
