By Babatunde Oso
LAGOS (Sundiata Post) – A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Alhaji Tabimu Turaki, has declared that he is Nigeria’s best bet in the 2019 presidential election. Turaki, a presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP) also said with society being dynamic, which has brought up some critical questions, restructuring of Nigeria’s federation has become inevitable.
Turaki, who stated these during an interactive session with the media at Sheraton Hotels & Towers, Ikeja, Lagos on Tuesday, said whether it is restructuring, regional control or statism, devolution of powers, it has become necessary to have another look at the structure of the government and country.
If he wins the presidential ticket of his party, PDP, Turaki, promised to promote the creation of an additional state in the South East, for example, as part of his overall commitment towards restructuring.
According to Turaki “I believe in restructuring whether from the perspective of federalism, devolution of powers, resource control, or creation of additional states.”
Turaki said the present All Progressives Party (APC) ruling government has failed, citing the three programmes on which crest it rode into power: security, anti-graft campaign and economy.
He maintained that the PDP handed over an economy that was the fastest growing in Africa. “Many Nigerians would all recall that PDP brought Nigeria’s economy to be the fastest growing in Africa. Our nation was the number one hub for investors from different part of the world. Then, these investors had confidence in our nation because there was a conducive environment for their investment to thrive, yielding quick returns within the shortest time. Through that processes, many jobs were created for teaming Nigerians. But today, many of these investors have sold off their assets and liabilities to relocate from our country. I wonder what’s now Nigeria’s economic role in the committee of African nations.”
Sadly too, Turaki said, a recent report by Brookings Institution, a non-profit public policy organization in the United States of America put Nigeria atop the world poverty statistics — ahead of India.
The report, titled ‘The Start of a New Poverty Narrative’, said “According to our projections, Nigeria has already overtaken India as the country with the largest number of extreme poor in early 2018. At the end of May 2018, our trajectories suggest that Nigeria had about 87 million people in extreme poverty, compared with India’s 73 million. What is more, extreme poverty in Nigeria is growing by six people every minute, while poverty in India continues to fall.”
On insecurity, Turaki lamented: “Today in Nigeria, there is fear everywhere. Anarchy has been let loose, especially in the North-Eastern and Middle Belt regions of Nigeria. There is uncountable herdsmen-farmers crises, bandits’ attack on towns and villages have become common scenarios in our country. All these insecurity symptoms have had a culminating effect on the Nigeria projects, be it economy or socio-political development. If I were the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, I would have sacked all security chiefs the day the Director of Department of State Security admitted at the National Assembly that security agencies were working at cross-purposes.
“Today,” he said, “under the APC government, our country is under siege. We are not safe in our houses, on the streets, places of works and one would wonder what sort of country is this? Everybody knew how Nigeria was before 2014-2015 elections. Nigeria and Nigerians were all well secured under PDP before the election. I had the rare opportunity and privilege to be among the Presidential Committee saddled with the responsibility to dialogue with insurgents in the North-east and I knew the progress we made and how our efforts crippled the wings of the group, which enabled elections to be held in the region in 2015.
“We succeeded in having those that wanted to dialogue with government dialogue, which brought relative peace to that region. But this government especially those people that surrounded them are not sincere about the fight against insurgents. They are telling Nigerians that they have degraded insurgents; yet, this group still kills innocent people every day.
On the ruling APC anti-corruption stance, he said “If we get back to government our anti-graft war will not be selective. We shall start corruption war from our party so that opposition party will not accuse us of witch-hunt like what is happening under APC today. I know many political office holders serving under APC, who were accused of corruption, but since they are in the ruling party, they have become saints and innocent. Their properties were not seized and were allowed to enjoy freedom and their looted funds. So, tell me how many APC members accused of corruption that is undergoing investigation today? None! However, our corruption war will be holistic, honest, done with integrity and not selective.
The PDP presidential aspirant further maintained: “Never in the history of Nigeria since the amalgamation of this country over 100 years ago, have I witnessed the kind of corruption going on under APC government. Never in our history as the political entities, have we seen the kind of corruption and stealing being perpetrated under the APC administration. It is so open and done without decorum. No arm of government under APC that is free of corruption. It is free for all. If the so called war against corruption that this APC government is saying they are championing is real, then, why is it one-sided to the extent that even ordinary Nigerians on the streets know that there is no fairness, no credibility, no integrity in what they are doing. The PDP has had close relationship with Nigerians. Nigerians know us; we know Nigerians and they understand our administration.