THE APC AND THE RESTRUTURING OF NIGERIA… -By Albert Afeso Akanbi

Albert Afeso Akanbi

Sometimes in January, former President Olusegun Obasanjo released an 18 page Open Letter, in which he took a serious swipe at incumbent president Mohammadu Buhari.
Almost immediately, the letter went viral.

In what appeared like an attempt to deflect the attention of Nigerians from the issues raised in the letter, the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Babachir, was arrested by the EFCC almost as soon as former President Obasanjo’s letter was released. Nigerians quickly saw through the smoke screen and cried fowl. In less than 24 hours, Babachir was released. The government later denied that his detention had anything to do with former President Obasanjo’s letter.

Now, I doubt if there are still any Nigerians who still believe that official line of the federal government on that matter, or any matter for that matter. Because, which Nigerian today, who can read between the lines, doesn’t know that the recent news about an El Rufai Panel on Restructuring is an attempt by the APC to gain some acceptance and votes in the forth coming elections?

I believe the whole idea that the APC is interested in restructuring, or any thing remotely near an equitable Nigeria where good governance, justice and the rule of law reigns supreme is a sham. The APC and the bruhaha about president Buhari’s integrity is the biggest fraud that has been sold to Nigerians in our modern history. How can a man who spent over hundred days in London, on bed rest, who did not see it as a patriotic duty to resign be adjured a man of integrity?

The level of hardship going on in Nigeria today, placed side by side our president’s clannishness, suggests what the APC as a political party truly is… a huge scam…

Now they are talking about restructuring under an El Rufai panel, forgetting that this same El Rufai who chairs the APC committee on restructuring today, was the same man who condemned those calling for restructuring a year ago…not just that, he called them opportunists…

What has changed between then and now for governor El Rufai?

President Buhari on new year day 2018, in his national broadcast, told Nigerians in clear terms to jestition the idea of restructuring and concentrate instead on processes… He told us categorically that there was nothing wrong with Nigeria as it is currently structured, that the only issue with Nigeria has to do with process…

It would be naive for any Nigerian today to believe that if president Buhari gets a second term, he would not discard this so called El Rufai committee report on restructuring that El Rufai and his fellow travelers are going about with around communities in Nigeria in the name of consultation…

El Rufai’s committee is not only taking us for fools, they are also wasting tax payers’ money and their time…

As Nigerians, we should be wiser now, and ensure that no amount of sham, propaganda and smoke screen should secure the APC another day after May 2019 in Aso Rock…

If the APC was serious about restructuring Nigeria, then they would have implemented their own manifesto with total commitment.

Yet, every single promise they made in 2015, they have failed.

They promised to stabilize the naira to 1Naira to 1USD, promised to create 720 million jobs in 36 states of the federation yearly, promised to pay allowances to youth corpers who were discharged and jobless, promised to pay 5,000 naira each to 25 million poorest Nigerians, promised to bring the price of petrol to 40 naira! and so on… In all these, they have failed woefully….

If this was all that there was to it, it would have been bearable, but no. They have plagued us with promises they didn’t make… We need not look farther than Benue, Kaduna, Taraba, and many more communities around Nigeria, including Akoko Edo Local Government area, where President Buhari’s fellow Fulani tribesmen and Islamists have been engaged in series of satanic acts of blood letting unhindered, ever since he took power. And today, we hear news of the herdsmen saying they have agreed to a cease fire in Benue, the same people that some prominent northern Nigerians have absolved of the evil killings and wanton destruction going on in the country.

After the blood letting in Benue State, the president did not deem it fit to condemn the Fulani herdsmen outright, or visit the state to console with the people, yet some people want us to believe that president Buhari would love Nigeria more than his Fulani tribe to the extent that he would want to restructure it?

In 1985, at an international forum, as Head of State, president Buhari voted against Dr Peter Onu, a Nigerian Christian from Igboland in favour of one Idi Omaro, a Fulani Muslim from Niger Republic, even though other African heads of state pleaded with Buhari to “please give us Peter! “…the man went ahead and voted in favour of tribe and religion against country…

Don’t be surprised. Our current president is just being who he is. Buhari. Fulani. Islamist.

From their antecedents and recent statements, let no one be fooled, president Buhari and governor El Rufai are the two greatest enemies, as well as a number of their northern brethren, of a restructured Nigeria. Can you imagine that in the 21st century, Nigeria has no standard expressway, no standard airport, no water, electricity, and so on, and yet we are still playing dangerous politics with the future of the youths instead of engaging in massive investment in infrastructure? With a deep sense of humility, I make bold to say that without restructuring, Nigeria would fail eventually.

This is why we must all see behind this lie called APC panel, and insist on APC leaving office through the ballot in 2019, so that a serious government can come forward and restructure this country for us…

We must all get our PVCs, go out there on voting days, vote and protect our votes…

Nigeria will be restructured, Nigeria will be great again, but certainly not before Buhari and his men are sent back to where ever it is they came from, in 2019…

God bless Nigeria…

Albert Afeso Akanbi is a writer, researcher and humanitarian… Blog: www.akanbiafeso.wordpress.com Twitter: @afeso82 Instagram: @afeso82