Former Vice President and presidential aspirant on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of being dishonest on the issue of restructuring.
In a statement that emanated from Atiku Campaign Organization, on Monday, It described has “a sign of the desperation of the All Progressives Congress that the party can officially attack His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar, and call him a “latter-day convert” to the idea of restructuring and accuse him of exploiting “populist politicalcampaigns”.
The statement reads, “We are glad that the APC, which has repeatedlydenied 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.
For the avoidance of doubt, here are the facts about the restructuring debate and Atiku Abubakar’s involvement with it.
In 1984, then Major General Muhammadu Buhari reduced the amount of derivation funds paid to oil producing states to a paltry 1.5 % by military fiat and left the offshore oil revenues to the federal government.
It also added that, “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.
“That allocation to derivation shall stand at a minimum of 13 per cent and that the dichotomy between onshore and offshore exploration shall not be taken into account for the purpose of revenue allocation.
