Month: January 2020

I was a guest on Channels tv (Lunchtime Politics) yesterday, January 1, 2020 to analyze the letter written to Nigerians on new year’s day by President Muhammadu Buhari and the position of my party was clear and unambiguous on some certain issues that were raised by the presenter.

1. On President Muhammadu Buhari not contesting in 2023 and his listed achievements in the economy and fighting corruption?

As far as we are concerned, it’s a non-issue and should not be up for discussion because the Nigerian constitution is quite clear on the number of terms prescribed for a president of which the incumbent is not exempted and to the best of my knowledge, the constitution has not been amended to suite a section, individual or group hence, he is not doing us a favor. However, his coming out openly to inform Nigerians that he is not contesting is still good and timely and should put the matter to rest once and for all.

There is clearly a disconnect between the government and the masses and Mr. President does not know what Nigerians are going through neither is the government in touch with global reality. In this era of 4th industrial revolution where the world is talking about Artificial Intelligence and robotics and the need to develop human capital, the government is busy drilling for crude oil in the far north while voting paltry sums for education and health.

In terms of fighting corruption, the current rating of Nigeria where she is placed 144th in the world on the corruption perception index by Transparency International settles that as we have not made any appreciable progress in our fight against corruption. Figures don’t lie.

2. On calling for peace in Nigeria?

The president should start matching words with actions as his own actions have been divisive and does not promote the peace he is professing. Virtually all political appointments have been tilted towards the north in clear violation of the federal character principle. If the president wants to amend the constitution to get rid of the federal character, he should please do, so that we know that going forward, he is free to appoint anybody from anywhere even if all his appointees will be members of his ethnic group.

But as far as the federal character principle as enshrined in the constitution is still in force, Mr. president is mandated to make appointments across board. He should visit the very foundation of what his actions have caused and begin to make amends by correcting the injustice and balance appointments across all ethnicity and religion.

3. On what do i expect from the government in 2020?

The president should start talking about restructuring because that is the only way forward. The APC government should stop deceiving us. The APC is the only party in the world that came to power based on promises made but denied all promises made immediately it got to power.

No nation can make any progress based on the current structure we have. Even if Mr. President does not trust oppositions’ views or the Jonathan’s report on restructuring, he can at least trust the Governor Nasir El-rufai report on restructuring. Let him start with the implementation of that report. Even if he is constructing roads and bridges, to what end when we don’t have a foundation? Let the APC start by implementing that report because that is the only way forward as a nation.

#WeNeedTransformationalLeaders
#TheTimeToRestructureNigeriaIsNow

It is indeed a new dawn as today marks the beginning of another decade, which we prayerfully hope will herald great possibilities, progress and national cohesion almost completely eroded in the past twenty years of the combined leadership of the PDP and APC respectively.

We commend the resilience of Nigerians in spite the several challenges we have gone through as a nation in the last decade most of which can be attributed to leadership failure and made worse by the visionless APC government, which has succeeded in bringing more hardship to Nigerians through her several obnoxious anti-masses policies thereby catapulting Nigeria to the pinnacle of poverty ladder and making the nation the poverty capital of the world.

Today, Nigeria has never been this divided along ethno-religious lines due to the nepotic disposition of the government in skewing appointments in favour of a particular ethnic group in a nation that boast of diversity as one of her greatest assets.

While the party commends the letter written to Nigerians by Mr. President today to inspire hope, we are however bold to tell President Muhammadu Buhari that until he starts matching words with actions, the country will continue to be trapped in a rat race that will only see the nation and development moving in opposite directions. Our reasons are not farfetched:

1. The President cannot be talking of tackling the root causes of violent extremism and the networks that help finance and organise terror without rijigging the current security apparatus to be more responsive and emphasize more on intelligence. The current service chiefs have been in place since the beginning of this administration in 2015 and government cannot continue to do things the same way and expect a different result.

2. The President cannot be talking of reforms in education, health care, water sanitation, and the huge opportunities our young and vibrant population offers after allocating a paltry sum of N40b for capital expenditure in education and less than same amount to health in the 2020 budget but proudly allocating N37b for the renovation of NASS building that was erected from foundation to completion for N7b.

3. The President cannot be talking of international partnerships without knowing where the world is heading. We are already in the 4th industrial revolution where the world is talking about robotics, Artificial Intelligence, clean and renewable energy and this government is spending billions of Naira prospecting for crude oil in the north.

4. The President cannot be talking of unity when his actions are clearly nepotic and divisive where all appointments are clearly skewed towards favouring those from the northern part of the country.

5. The President cannot be talking of fighting corruption when rather than build institutions, systems, and processes, he is busy basking in the euphoria of political witch-hunt, which explains why we are still ranked 144th on the Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International.

6. The President cannot be talking of Nigerians being tolerant, law-abiding and peace-loving without first setting the example through complete adherence to the rule of law and also embarking on the restructuring of the country.

It is our firm belief that the President Muhammadu Buhari led APC will be sober and humble enough to rescind all anti-masses policies that have made life unbearable for ordinary Nigerians such as excessive taxation rather than expanding the tax net in a bid to raise more revenue, balance appointments to reflect our diversity and invest more in education, health and technological innovations rather than the wild goose chase of borrowing $30b to finance frivolities.

Conclusively, Nigerians should not despair because there is hope that things will get better if only we can unite in holding this government accountable at least till 2023 when we would have yet another opportunity to change political leadership.

This is wishing all Nigerians a 2020 filled with socio-economic and political growth that will translate into prosperity for the masses.

Signed:

Comrade Egbeola Wale Martins
National Publicity Secretary
Young Progressives Party
www.ypp.ng; email: nps@ypp.ng