BY SEGUN ADEBAYO, ABUJA – Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, declared on Tuesday in Asaba, the Delta State capital, that there must be restructuring for Nigeria to make progress.
Speaking when he visited the governor in continuation of consultation for the 2019 Presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku said he has been in the forefront for the restructuring of the country since 2004, adding, “I strongly believe that the way out of the challenges of the country is to have stronger states, stronger federating units.”
Atiku said his aspiration to be Nigeria’s President was borne out of his passion to ensure that the country makes progress, disclosing that “the security architecture of the country must be reviewed and decentralized.”
He decried situation where security agencies do not take orders from the state governors, asserting, “as an individual, I don’t think this is true federalism, we must restructure the security architecture.”
The former Vice President also listed ways to tackle unemployment in the country observing, “to create jobs, you must liberalize the economy, support the private sector, create incentives to make the private sector boom and open up the economy to foreign direct investment.”
“I will have a very small federal government with powers and resources devolved to the states to manage the affairs while they pay tax to the federal government; with this, each zone can survive on its own without leaning on oil money,” he emphasized.
While noting that Delta State is home to the PDP, the former vice president commended the developmental strides of the Delta State Government, saying, “Delta State has been a PDP state, each successive government continues from where the previous one stopped in terms of infrastructure development, you (Governor Okowa) have continued to develop infrastructure, especially roads, your efforts in executing your programmes and policies, especially in the creeks are highly commendable as they will reduce agitations, it requires wise leadership for communities to live in peace and have sense of belongings and I must commend you for doing this in the state”.
Governor Okowa commended the PDP presidential aspirant for engaging in consultation visit, assuring that delegates to the Presidential Primaries of the PDP will make their decisions based on acceptability, reach, experience and level of intelligence of the individual aspirants.
He urged the aspirant not to relent in moving to different states of the country, stating that more efforts should be made for the PDP to be in control of more states of the country to enable it clinch the Presidential position in 2019.
Others who spoke at the event included former Governor of Ogun State, Otumba Gbenga Daniel, his Imo State counterpart, Chief Achike Udenwa, former Minister of the Ministry of Niger Delta, Elder Godsday Orubebe, among others.
