Former vice president and Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar, has observed that agitations for secession would not have arisen if the country had shown sincere readiness to address the underlying problems that feed the agitations by separatist forces around the country.
He, however, described as patriotic the convergence of positions around restructuring by leaders and stakeholders from diverse regions of the country, noting that it confirms that he (Atiku Abubakar) was not just a lone voice in the wilderness in the inevitability of restructuring of Nigeria for the good of all.
In a statement issued by his media office yesterday, Atiku further commended the resolution of the APC governors, which called for restructuring and true federalism, saying that the issue transcended religion and ethnicity.
According to the Waziri Adamawa, the restructuring debate transcended the ambition of any single politician in Nigeria, and that any attempt to ignore the agitations could make a bad situation more complicated.
Explaining that avoiding a problem won’t solve that problem, he stated that with so much hate, distrust, suspicions and fears in the country, political leaders shouldn’t be afraid to confront the challenge.
His words: “Our current federal structure should be freely discussed by allowing the federating units voice their grievances with a view to finding workable solutions that protects the rights and interests of all.
“The country could not afford to allow bottled up frustrations of the people to explode into violence, which threatens not only innocent lives, but also harms the country’s economic assets”.
Atiku praised the progressive governors and other leadersas well as interest groups for their courage to confront the country’s most urgent national challenge, adding that separatist agitations are dangerously threatening the country’s unity and indivisibility.
He pointed out that, to his mind, no country could afford to take these threats lightly.
