Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has again insisted that the All Progressives Congress (APC) was dishonest about the issue of restructuring of Nigeria.
Describing the APC as “Latter-Day convert” to the idea of restructuring Nigeria, the former Vice President said the party’s sudden turnaround was a sign of desperation even as he further accused the APC of exploiting “populist political campaigns”.
Atiku was reacting to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s recently position at a town hall meeting in Minnesota, the United States of America, where he said the problem of Nigeria was not geographical restructuring but prudent management of national resources.
But Abubakar dismissed Osinbajo’s claim accusing the APC government of playing to the gallery on the issue of restructuring Nigeria.
However, sustaining the verbal altercation, Osinbajo responded by insisting that restructuring in “whatever shape or form, will not mean much if our political leaders see public resources as an extension of their bank accounts.” Subsequently, the APC attacked protagonists of restructuring noting that the call was often time a populist and opportunistic ploy latched on by self-seeking politicians to politically exploit simplistic public narratives on the panacea to Nigeria’s problems and not necessarily for its realism and practicability.
Yesterday, Atiku in a statement signed by his spokesperson, Paul Ibe, dismissed the stance of the APC stating: “We are glad that the APC, which has repeatedly denied and avoided its own promise to restructure, has now acknowledged that restructuring is populist.
It takes guts to make such an admission and we commend them.
“We also urge the APC to go the full haul and admit that the Waziri Adamawa is no latter-day convert to the restructuring idea but has been a consistent advocate of the idea since 1995”, he said stressing that Atiku had for years been an advocate of restructuring.
According to him, Atiku had for two decades been actively involved in the restructuring debate and went on to note specific instances.
“In 1984, then Major General Muhammadu Buhari reduced the amount of derivation funds paid to oil producing states to a paltry 1.5 percent by military fiat and left the offshore oil revenues to the federal government.
“During the 1994-95 Constitutional Conference, Patriots led by the late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and Atiku Abubakar, who felt that the 1984 action by Muhammadu Buhari was unjust, worked with a pan Nigerian group of members of the conference and came up with a unique solution to the onshore/offshore dichotomy.
“Their solution provided a formula for the administration of the derivation principle and contained three very significant embodiments”, the statement noted.
Further, Ibe said: “If the APC would care to Google Resource Control, they would find articles from various Nigerian papers dating back to July 13, 2001, in which Waziri Atiku Abubakar has been championing restructuring.
“The aforementioned facts show that Atiku Abubakar is no latter-day convert to restructuring neither is it a brainwave.
It is a carefully thought out position that the Waziri took on principle in 1995 and has stuck to it through thick and thin.
“But Nigerians may want to ask the APC why it denied its own promise to restructure Nigeria.
The case of the APC is like the case of a farmer who chances on thieves on his farm.
“If he does not raise the alarm, the thieves can accuse the farmer of being a thief.
The APC wants to falsely raise the alarm so that Nigerians will not know who the genuine advocate of restructuring is between them and Atiku Abubakar.”
