The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday tasked President Muhammadu Buhari to adopt the 2014 National Conference report to satisfy popular demands of Nigerians calling for the restructuring of the country.
The document, the party says reflects concerns of most Nigerians across different divides, thus should be adopted and presented to the National Assembly (NASS) for consideration.
“Our party stands at the forefront of efforts for genuine restructuring, but we hold that the authentic materials for a genuine restructuring are contained in the 2014 National Confab report, wherein, Nigerians, across all the divides, collectively provided a roadmap out of our constitutional quagmire,” Kola Ologbondiyan said in a statement.
He accused the Progressive Congress (APC) of frustrating the restructuring demands of the people, stressing that the document is capable of addressing some of the constitutional problems confronting the country.
Ologbondiyan stressed that other alternative measures or contrary documents proposed as a substitute to the confab report might not ‘genuinely restructure’ the nation.
According to the PDP spokesperson, the APC had commenced plans to present an alternative report produced by its committee setup on restructuring. The contrary report, he alleged, was to replace the 2014 national conference report.
“Nigerians are also alerted of a fresh ploy by some ambitious APC leaders to blackmail the legislature and create an impression of commitment to restructuring, just to beguile the people and soften the ground for their personal political and particularly, presidential ambitions ahead of the 2023 elections.
“It is therefore unacceptable that the 2014 National Conference report, which embodies the desires and hopes of over 200 million Nigerians, has been shelved by President Buhari since his predecessor in office, President Jonathan personally handed it over to him in 2015 for implementation in line with the wishes and aspirations of the people,” it reads in part.
“Our party, therefore, charges President Buhari to bring out the 2014 National Conference Report, dust it up and present it as an executive bill to the NASS to guide the desired amendment to the 1999 Constitution (as amended) with regard to restructuring,” the statement added.
Many Nigerians have recently called on the President to consider restructuring the nation to reflect the true demands of the people.
Though the APC claimed to have commenced gradual consideration of the confab report, last month, Bolaji Akinyemi, a former Minister of External Affairs expressed concerns about why the president is believed to be reluctant in implementing the report.
The gesture, it is assumed would offer a new dimension of socioeconomic growth, improve the electoral system, enable devaluation of power, and reduce authorities of the federal government regarding items in the exclusive list.
