Fifteen Nigerian Governors elected under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday condemned what it called the alarming drift of the country, which it said if allowed to persist will make Nigeria a failed state under the watch of the President Mohammadu Buhari-led APC government. Besides, the governors called for urgent devolution of powers and restructuring of the country to bring about the desired unity that the nation yearns for. Chairman, PDP Governor’s Forum and Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, who briefed journalists at the end of the meeting at the government house in Makurdi, expressed deep concern of the forum at the deteriorated relationship among the different ethnic groups in Nigeria, which he noted has given rise to ethnic and tribal tensions, religious divisions, various forms of social and political cleavages. He noted that the country is in dire need of leadership at the federal level to avert the looming disaster.
“The meeting noted and condemned the alarming drift of Nigeria which if allowed to continue, will make Nigeria a failed state under the watch of the APC government. “Consequently, the governors reaffirmed their conviction that an urgent devolution of powers and restructuring of the country in a way that brings together various groups and tendencies in the country appears to have become imperative and timely now as Nigeria cannot afford another civil war”. The governors said the time has come to take advantage of the ongoing constitutional amendment process to decentralise the security architecture of Nigeria and involve states and local governments.
They called on the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), to send a new revised allocation formula that would allocate more resources to states and local governments to the President for onward transmission to the National Assembly for immediate action, saying it was a scandal that 21 years after the 1999 constitution came into being, no new formula has been put in place and stressed the need for a more transparent and accountable running of operations of the Nigeria National Petrol Corporation, NNPC.
The meeting which condemned the intimidation of PDP governors by Buhari’s administration, using weapons like security agencies, unequal access to federal resources, promotion of divisions in the opposition political parties, with fake promises and falsehood, condemned what it called the double standards being applied by the President to intimidate PDP-controlled states.
“To this end, we called on the federal government to lift the so-called no flight zone and other intimidating tactics imposed on Zamfara and other states with similar security challenges like Benue, Kaduna, Borno, Katsina, and Yobe, describing them as politically motivated to ensure that the governors defect to the APC. The governors decried the poor performance of the APC since it came to power, regretting that Nigeria has the highest unemployment rate in the world with 33 per cent, a development the governors maintained has ranked the nation second highest poverty country in the world.