Atiku submits himself to grilling from Southern and Middle Belt Forum leaders on restructuring

FORMER vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has stepped up his 2019 presidential campaign aggressively by meeting with leaders of the Southern and Middle Belt Forum (SMBF) to allay their fears about his presidency.

Alhaji Atiku is one of several candidates seeking to run against President Muhammadu Buhari in February next year and he has been travelling across the country over recent months outlining his vision for the country. Among other things, Alhaji Atiku has promised to restructure the country to end what is seen as Fulani domination under the status quo, that prevents the component parts of the nation expanding their local economies as they see fit.

SMBF leaders have been harsh critics of President Buhari's administration, which they accuse of being insensitive to the plight of the south and Middle Belt. Among their complaints are the fact that federal appointments are lopsided, President Buhari has refused to address the Fulani herdsmen crisis and the government is opposed to restructuring that will divest power to the states.

Over the weekend, at a meeting in the Abuja home of Chief Edwin Clark, the founder of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (Pandef), Alhaji Atiku subjected himself to a grilling from the SMBF leaders. Among those present were the leaders of Pandef, the Igbo socio-cultural organisation Ohaneze Ndigbo and the Yoruba umbrella body Afenifere.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo president Nnia Nwodo, said: “We have been meeting for quite some time as we are besieged with matters of national importance affecting the health of our country. One of the programmes we decided to embark on is to talk with those who have expressed a desire to lead our country to contest for the presidency.

“We wanted to rub minds with them and we wanted to know their views about the things that are of importance to us so that by the time we finish the interaction, we will be able to assure ourselves which of them we think will reflect our aspirations and rejig our country and bring it to where our countrymen and women will like it to be. By sheer force of providence, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Wazirin Adamawa has become the first person to be with us.”

Alhaji Atiku had said: " ”I support restructuring as it will help to devolve powers to state governments, allowing the federal government to focus on a few nationally critical things and become more efficient and lean. This will then reduce the focus on the federal government and federal power, it will bring us more in line with federal systems that actually work well and it will result in greater sense of justice, and peace and unity

“Restructuring will result in financially more viable federating units with greater autonomy which will allow them to develop at their own paces, address peculiar local issues and unleash their potentials, thus helping the country to reach its potentials. Competitive federalism or healthy competition among our federating units will return to our polity.

However, his critics have attacked him for not addressing the matter when he was vice president, saying he had eight years to implement such policies. Between 1999 and 2007, Alhaji Atiku was the vice president and chairman of the National Economic Council.