Former Governor of Lagos State and the National Leader of Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, the major opposition party in the country, has expressed concern at the rate which Nigeria is disintegrating.
Delivering a speech titled “The Role of the Opposition in Meeting Nigeria’s Challenges”, at the Woodrow Wilson Centre, Washington DC, USA, recently, Tinubu noted that talks on disintegration of Nigeria have been fashionable in the last two weeks.
Tinubu highlighted the move by a faction of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, which issued a declaration of independence in Nigeria, designed its own flag for a Sovereign Ogoni people and calls for self-determination by the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, who also applied for a UN observer status.
He added that the new Ijaw ethnic consciousness and new ethnic agitations by Boko Haram Islamic militants, all pointed to the fact that all is not well with Nigeria.
Tinubu berated the inconsistency of the Federal Government to deal decisively with the Boko Haram insurgents when government tried to coerce the Islamists one day and the next day the same government will be talking of engaging the Islamists in a dialogue.
“There has been insufficient governance for the benefit of the people. We certainly have not seen good governance. We have suffered more from inertia and confusion than from intelligent but malevolent design,” Tinubu posited.
He lamented that due to activities of Boko Haram, internal security was presently at its lowest ebb leading to fear and uncertainty and tension has dominated religious and political activities such that in many states, specially in the North, children can no longer attend schools and farmers neglect their fields fearing Boko Haram attacks.
According to him, “Nigeria is fast becoming one of the most dangerous places on earth. The stories of militia killings, brutal attacks and bombings we thought were restricted to Afghanistan, Iraq or Somalia are now daily activities in Nigeria,” adding that Boko Haram bombings have threatened Nigerian democracy while people cannot rely on the government to protect them.
To end Boko Haram and other security threats, Tinubu suggested improvement in local information gathering, enhancement of local conflict resolution, setting up of rights groups, dialogue with opinion leaders, feeding primary and secondary school children, direct support to farmers and skills development programmes for the unemployed.
He berated government’s decision to remove fuel subsidy, arguing that its plan was to make money instead of saving the hard pressed masses of Nigeria.
Tinubu said the opposition had earlier met with government and warned it about the dangers inherent in hiking price of fuel because of subsidy removal.
He said government rejected the suggestion that subsidy be removed in phases while Nigerians should be compensated with government’s investment in public transportation, primary health care and infrastructure development, adding, “ignoring our counsel, government lifted the subsidy by stealth and also deployed armed soldiers to deter protests.”
Speaking on the need to reform the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, the ACN leader observed that the PIB is not the right and effective prescription as the bill gives too much power to the Minister of Petroleum, adding that some parts of the bill make the oil sector even more fertile ground for corruption.
Source: OgoniNews
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