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Abdulqudus Ogundapo
A presidential aspirant under the platform of People’s Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar has promised to initiate policies that would give power to state and local government to control government activities.
The former vice president who lamented lack of implementation of local government autonomy by the incumbent administration, noted that Nigerians were being ruled by hypocrites.
Kayode Fayemi , Ekiti State Governor and presidential aspirant under the platform of All Progressives Congress had faulted the call for local government autonomy.
Fayemi was quoted to have said “The principle of federalism is very clear about the federating units. The local government, as a federating unit, is a unique innovation in Nigeria. I have not seen it in any research work or in any book on federalism.”
But, Atiku while addressing delegates and members of the PDP in Ogun State on Saturday , described the statement as hypocrisy.
“Some few days ago, a governor declared to run for president and he was talking about local government autonomy and currently, in his state he is not giving that autonomy to the local government, so you can see the hypocrisy in some of our leaders. That is why I said constitutionally , we are going to initiate reforms which will give state and local government more powers and more resources to deal with issues that are essentially in the state and local government issues” Atiku said.
The presidential aspirant promised to unite Nigerians when elected president of the country.
Atiku who lamented disunity of Nigerians, blamed the ruling All Progressives Congress for disuniting Nigerians.
“And I said, I was going to tackle security, after that I said once you tackle insecurity, it means there is peace and where there is peace then you can now begin to implement your economic reforms which will create jobs, which will bring about national development, which will also bring about the development of infrastructure .
“I also said, I was going to tackle the issue of decentralisation or devolution of power to the states and local government . Some few days ago, a governor declared to run for president and he was talking about local government autonomy and currently, in his state he is not giving that autonomy to the local government, so you can see the hypocrisy in some of our leaders, that is why I said constitutionally , we are going to initiate reforms which will give state and local government more powers and more resources to deal with issues that are essentially in the state and local government issues.
“I thought, I should remind you of all the promises I made during my declaration and request you to kindly , if you voted for me when I did not come, now that I am here would you now vote for me .
“Distinguished delegates of Ogun State, I dearly thank you very much for this brotherly and warm reception that has been accorded to me and I promise I will not fail you and I will not fall Nigerians”.
He said “We have never witnessed the kind of disunity we have today in this country even during the civil war, and why it is disunity is because the APC government has not been fair to all parts of this country. And I promise to unify this country. I promise to give a sense of belonging to every part of this country. We have done it before in 1999 when we came , there was a lot of disunity but it was not as bad as this. But, the first thing we did was to make sure we form a government of national unity and that gave us the calmness in the unity we needed to govern , as long as the country is not united, as long as there is no peace you cannot govern it even in your home not to talk of a complex country like Nigeria which is multi ethnic and multi religious. So, i promise to give every part of this country a sense of belonging , that was why I said I was going to restore unity “.
The presidential aspirant also promised to resolve the challenges of insecurity, adding that he would initiate the local government autonomy when elected president.
