APC confesses that it does not understand what most Nigerians mean by restructuring

NIGERIA'S ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has conceded that it is perplexed as to why Nigerians are clamouring for a restructuring of the country and added that it is still not fully aware of that the clarion call means.

 

Over the last two years since the APC came to power, calls for a radical change in the way Nigeria is structured have grown louder by the day. Due to a combination of factors including the agitation for the recreation of the defunct Republic of Biafra in southeast Nigeria, the activities of Fulani herdsmen and President Muhammadu Buhari's perceived lopsided appointments, these calls for restructuring are now deafening.

 

In response, the APC has set up a committee  chaired by Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai to draw up recommendations on the way forward. Other members of the nine-member committee are Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State and the former governor of Edo State Professor Oserheimen Osunbor.

 

Others include the APC's national organising secretary Senator Osita Izunaso, its publicity secretary Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi and Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi, who will serve as secretary. According to the APC, the committee was not to come up with modalities for restructuring the country but to merely define the concept.

 

Mallam Abdullahi said: “We just finished the meeting with our governors and we considered a number of issues. They include the issue of restructuring, national convention of the party and these regular meetings would be expanded to include principal officers of the National Assembly from now on.

 

“When we talk about a committee on restructuring, what we are talking about is a committee that will articulate what APC means by restructuring because we have realised that over a couple of days now or weeks, when people use the word restructuring, we don’t know if we are talking about the same thing and people have gone about saying APC promised restructuring. So this committee that is set up that will now be chaired by the governor of Kaduna is mainly to define what APC means by restructuring, so that every member will know what we exactly mean.”

 

Meanwhile, the party has blamed the illness of President Buhari for its inability to fix a tentative date for its mid-term non-elective national convention. Over the last two months, President Buhari has been on sick leave and has been staying in London.

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