Atiku, Okowa Restate Commitment to Restructuring
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the Governor of Delta State, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, have said there must be restructuring for Nigeria to make progress.
Atiku and Okowa spoke yesterday in Asaba.
The former vice president was in the state to consult the people on his aspiration for the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the 2019 general election.
While Atiku disclosed that he has been in the fore front for the restructuring of the country since 2004 as it will bring out the best among Nigerians, Okowa stated that “I strongly believe that the way out of the challenges of the country is to have stronger states and stronger federating units.”
The governor commended the former vice president for engaging in consultation visit, assuring him that delegates to the presidential primaries of the PDP will make their decisions based on acceptability, reach, experience and level of intelligence of the individual aspirants. He urged the aspirant not to relent in moving to different states of the country, stating that more efforts should be made for the PDP to be in control of more states of the country to enable it clinch the presidential position in 2019.
Atiku had said his aspiration to be Nigeria’s president was borne out of his passion to ensure that the country make progress, disclosing that “the security architecture of the country must be reviewed and decentralised.”
He decried situation where security agencies do not take orders from the state governors, asserting: “as an individual, I don’t think this is true federalism, we must restructure the security architecture.”
The former vice president also listed ways to tackle unemployment in the country observing that “to create jobs, you must liberalise the economy, support the private sector, create incentives to make the private sector boom and open up the economy to foreign direct investment.
“I will have a very small federal government with powers and resources devolved to the states to manage the affairs while they pay tax to the federal government; with this, each zone can survive on its own without leaning on crude oil money.”
Earlier at a courtesy call on Okowa, Atiku had said he was in the state to consult the people and seek their support to enable him emerge as the presidential standard bearer of the PDP.
While noting that Delta State was home to the PDP, Atiku commended the developmental strides of Okowa in the development of the state.
“Delta State has been a PDP state, each successive government continues from where the previous one stopped in terms of infrastructure development. You (Okowa) have continued to develop infrastructure, especially roads; your efforts in executing your programmes and policies, especially in the creeks, are highly commendable as they will reduce agitations, it requires wise leadership for communities to live in peace and have sense of belongings, and I must commend you for doing this in the state,” he stated.