Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has said the All Progressives Congress (APC) is ignorant of his plan to restructure Nigeria.
Atiku, a presidential aspirant in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who spoke yesterday in Kano, said: โWhat l am advocating is that restructuring should be carried out in phases, rather than being total, because power at the centre is too heavy. It should be reduced.
โI think APC must be very ignorant, because my position on the issue of restructuring dates back to the report of constitutional restructuring of 1994. If you check the report, you will find my contributions, as far as restructuring is concerned.โ
He described his idea about restructuring as slimming down the Federal Government, while the bulk of responsibilities are shouldered by the geopolitical zones or the states closer to the people.
โBy restructuring, I mean devolving power to the states or geopolitical zones as the case may be, so that they can assume greater responsibilities in their respective states or zones.
โAt the moment, the Federal Government has too much on its plate and it is not able to pay attention to all parts of the country. My belief is that by devolving more power to those states or regions, they are closer to the people, particularly in areas such as education, health, infrastructure and so on. I want to see a lean Federal Government, a small Federal Government,โ Atiku said.
He explained that by restructuring, the functions of the Federal Government would be limited to defence, immigration, currency and the Central Bank of Nigeria.
โA small Federal Government will deal with matters such as defence, foreign affairs, currency, Central Bank of Nigeria and immigration.
โOn why lโm advocating restructuring, it will deal with a lot of problems, including insecurity. It will solve the problems affecting economic development, which every part of the country is complaining of.
โSo, if we give you more power and resources to develop your states, then you should hold your states responsible, not the Federal Government. This is what I mean by restructuring,โ the aspirant said.
On the issue of PDP having 12 aspirants, he said there is a process, which will culminate in the emergence of one person.
โOne thing we have agreed on is that we will support whoever wins. We did that in the APC and it worked. We will do the same thing in the PDP,โ Atiku said.
He was received by his supporters led by the Chairman of the party in the state, Senator Musaโd El-Jibrin Doguwa.
