- Slam APC’s government as monumental failure
BY EDMOND ODOK – The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum (PDP-GF) has blamed the All Progressives Party (APC) for Nigeria’s current woes, insisting that the country is in dire need of leadership at the Federal level to avert the looming socio-economic disaster.
Also, the Forum condemned the nation’s alarming drift and debilitating problems, warning that if allowed to continue Nigeria will become a failed state under the APC watch.
Rising from their meeting in Makurdi, the Benue State capital on April 9, 2021, the PDP governors, in reviewing the state of affairs and common developments in their respective states, expressed deep concern and alarm at the deteriorating relations among various groups in the country.
According to the governors, it is deeply distressing that “all our fault lines and differences are being stretched to the limit by a government that clearly lacks the capacity to govern.”
In a 10-point communique issued as part of the meeting’s outcome, they lamented that the APC administration’s ineptitude has “given rise to ethnic and tribal tensions, religious divisions, and various forms of social and political cleavages.”
On the worsening insecurity in the country, the PDP-GF said it was clearly “alarmed that security of lives and property of Nigerians are no longer guaranteed under the present government as a result of leadership incompetence and mismanagement of the nation’s affairs”, noting that “Governors have a role to play in the handling of some of the worsening situations.”
However, regretting that “their hands are tied behind their backs as the entire coercive authority in the country is monopolised by the APC federal government”, the PDP governors said; “Time has come to take advantage of the ongoing Constitution Amendment process to decentralise the security architecture of Nigeria and involve States and Local Governments.”
“Consequently, the Governors reaffirmed their conviction that an urgent devolution of powers and restructuring of the country in a way that brings together various groups and tendencies in the country appears to have become imperative and timely now as Nigeria cannot afford another civil war”, the communique said
On the need to urgently jettison the existing revenue formula, the PDP governors urged “the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission to send a new Revenue Allocation Formula that allocates more resources to States and Local Governments to Mr President for National Assembly’s action.
“It is a scandal that 21 years after the 1999 Constitution came into being, no new Revenue Formula is in place.”
Similarly, the meeting demanded a “more transparent and accountable running and operation of the NNPC.”
Accusing the APC government of double standards meant to intimidate PDP controlled states, the meeting further “condemned the intimidation of sitting Governors by the APC administration using all sorts of weapons like security agencies, unequal access to federal resources, promotion of divisions in the opposition political parties with fake promises and falsehoods.”
“To this end, we call on Mr. President to lift the so called “No flight Zone” and other intimidating tactics, imposed on Zamfara State as similar measures have not been extended to similar states with security challenges like Kaduna, Borno, Katsina, Yobe and others.
“This is mostly politically motivated to ensure that the Governors move over to APC”, the opposition governors further alleged in their statement.
