The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to accord Nigerians with the right to demand for constitutional restructuring.
President Buhari, represented as Special Guest of Honour by the Executive Secretary, Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Alhaji Mohammed Bello Shehu, at the launch of the Kudirat Abiola Sabon Gari Peace Foundation in Zaria, Kaduna state, Saturday had said those calling for the balkanisation of Nigeria were only doing so to destabilise his government.
The party in reaction through a statement by it National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, Sunday described President Buhari’s reported remarks that “he and his All Progressives Congress (APC) had no time for the call by Nigerians for a discourse” on the state of the nation, particularly in the face of worsening insecurity, economic hardship and sectional disagreements, further demonstrates their arrogant and dictatorial disposition towards the people.
“It is instructive to inform President Buhari that, as citizens of a democratic state, Nigerians have every right to demand for constitutional restructuring as well as a democratic forum to deliberate on good governance and national cohesion, the opposition party added.
Continuing, the statement read: “The PDP notes that such demands are neither synonymous nor contiguous to warfare.
“It is appalling, and to say the least, despicable, that Mr. President and his party, the APC, who came to power in 2015 on the promise of restructuring, have not only reneged, in utter duplicity towards Nigerians, but also turned around, six years after, to label restructuring as warfare and Nigerians demanding for it as “mischievously dangerous.
“Only recently, President Buhari confessed how he asked some state governors who came to him on issues of security to go back to their respective states and face the challenge.
“The amendment or alteration of the constitution to permit state police as widely demanded by Nigerians is therefore a form of restructuring that will adjust our policing system without creating a war.
“On Mr. President’s allusion to a power of selection over whom he will cede power to, the PDP informs President Buhari and his APC to understand that political power belongs to Nigerians and the people will determine who governs them after the Buhari and APC’s era, which will come to an inevitable end on May 29, 2023”.
