Former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar has stated that true federalism and restructuring would address secession threat by members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)
Atiku stated this in a chat with journalists, at the state secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Finbarrs road, Umuahia, the Abia state capital, at the end of a closed-door meeting with national delegates of the PDP during his visit in the state.
He denied that Northerners were against restructuring and stated that devolution of power and creation of state, was all that was needed for all the sections of the country to come to a roundtable to redefine how best to move the country forward.
“I believe that when you restructure this country and you give more resources and powers to component units of this country, you will not have the problem of IPOB. IPOB is looking for self-determination and when you devolve more powers and resources that will take care of the agitation.
“Our great party is at the cross road as well as the country. We have never been so divided in all my life in this country the way that we are divided today between the North south and east and Christians and Muslims. It is a very serious issue.
“We have the issue of insecurity. You are not secure in any part of the country. Of course, we have one of the greatest economic declines in the history of this country. There has never been a time when we recorded more than 11million people out of their jobs in this country; this is the first time that we are witnessing that. In every aspect of the country, we have gone back while other countries are forging ahead, we are declining. There is no unity, no security and the economy is bad as well.
“Therefore, it has become imperative that we put our heads together and unite and make sure that we elect a leader that can reverse all these negative growth this party (APC) has brought to this country. It is on record that 16years of PDP administration in this country has improved the standard of living of this country.
“During the PDP, Nigeria was declared debt free country but within three years, all the 16 years achievements of the PDP have been reversed completely by the APC led administration, so there is need for us to elect a leadership that can reverse all these negative growths that we have achieved in the last three years.
“I have been an advocate of either local or community policing to deal with local issues. I do not know of a federation that has a Centralized Policing,” he said.
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