25112020 - Selfish Northerners opposing restructuring, says el-Rufai

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2020 — 35
Selfish Northerners opposing restructuring, says el-Rufai
Continues from Page 5
Southern Kaduna. But
the newspapers based in
Lagos and Abuja choose
to focus on Southern
Kaduna rather than what
is really happening,” he
said.
The governor noted
that the crisis was over
200 years old and could
not be tackled in a
minute.
On population, El-
Rufai argued that
population could only be
controlled through
education of the girlchild.
“Countries that
controlled birth rate
through legislation are
now reversing it. There
is a lot of debate on that
because countries that
have tried to curtail
demographic growth like
China have now
reversed themselves.
“Singapore even pays
you to have children.
The current thinking in
developing economies is
that population growth
is not bad if you can
ensure that the
population is educated
and healthy.
“But at the state level,
we are all trying our best
to reduce fertility level.
And what is the best
way? The best way is to
educate girls. If you
make sure that your girls
are educated, you
immediately reduce
fertility level.
“The way is to ensure
that the girls get at least
senior secondary school
level because now they
take their fate in their
own hands. They start at
least from the age of 18.”
It's a game to
hoodwink the
unwary
— Afenifere
Reacting yesterday,
Afenifere, in a statement
by the National Publicity
Secretary, Yinka
Odumakin, said: “El-
Rufai can go to an
assembly of fools and tell
them such fallacious
fabrications and they
will cheer him but he
should know that he
cannot say that to
enlightened people. This
is Taqqiya next level.
“If his reason was
valid, why have they not
reintroduced it after the
2019 elections? He will
say it is because of
COVID-19 and
EndSARS? These fellows
take fellow citizens to be
fools. There is no game
they will not play on the
way to 2023 to hoodwink
the unwary.”
Nigerians now
wiser
— Ohanaeze
On its part, Ohanaeze
Ndigbo said Nigerians
were wiser now to be
hoodwinked, adding that
the only thing that would
convince Nigerians was
for APC to ensure
restructuring of the
country before 2023.
Speaking through his
Special Adviser on
Media and Publicity,
Chief Emeka Attamah,
the President General of
Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief
Nnia Nwodo, said what
would excite Nigerians
would be to hear that
President Buhari has
ordered
the
restructuring of Nigeria.
“Why is it that this
administration thrives on
lies? There is no
programme of theirs that
they promised Nigerians
that has been realised.
“One would recall that
it was in the build-up to
the 2019 elections when
the Southern and Middle
Belt Leadership Forum
was agitating for
restructuring that APC
half-heartedly set up the
Governor El-Rufai
Committee and no sooner
was the election
conducted and they
consigned whatever
recommendations they
made to the dustbin.
“Now, they have come
again. Motion without
movement. I think
Nigerians are wiser now
and cannot be
hoodwinked by any
tongue in cheek
pretentions any longer.
“Until they take any
visibly convincing steps
this time around, the
whole El-Rufai story is
hogwash. Restructuring
is incontrovertibly
inevitable before Nigeria
collapses.
“Let them carry out the
restructuring of the
country before the 2023
elections to acquire some
vestige of credibility
before Nigerians and the
international community.
“Let the breaking news
be: President Buhari
orders the restructuring
of Nigeria immediately.
By that, he would have
written his name in gold.
All the sins of this
administration will be
forgiven and forgotten
and he will become one
of the greatest, if not the
greatest leader of
Nigeria.”
APC govt not
honest with
Nigerians
— PANDEF
Apex socio-cultural
organization of the
South South geopolitical
zone, Pan Niger
Delta Forum, PANDEF,
has said that the ruling
All Progressives
Congress, APC, is not
honest with Nigerians.
National Chairman of
the forum, Air
Commodore Idongesit
STAFF OF OFFICE TO THE ROYAL FATHERS —From left: Speaker, Kwara State House of Assembly ,
Yakubu Salihu Danlandi; wife of Olupako of Share, Hajia Fatimah Suleiman; Olupako of Share, Oba Haruna
Olawale Suleiman; Gov AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara; Olusin of Ijara-Isin, Oba Ajibola Ademola Julius;
wife of Olusin of Ijara-Isin, Elizabeth Ajibola; Son of Olusin of Ijara-Isin, Lawrence Ajibola; Deputy Gov Kayode
Alabi and Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy Affairs and Community Development , Aliyu
Muhammad Saifudeen, during the presentation of Staff of Office to the Royal Fathers at Government House,
Ilorin, on Monday.
Nkanga, retd, made the
remark yesterday while
reacting to a statement by
Governor El-Rufai that
the draft bill on
restructuring
recommended by his
committee was stepped
down in 2018 due to its
politicization ahead of
the 2019 general polls.
His words: “The call for
restructuring Nigeria did
not start today. Even the
All Progressives
Congress, APC, came
into power because when
they were campaigning
in 2015, they had said
LAGOS—The
Presidential Task Team
managing the traffic
gridlock on Apapa-Oshodi
Expressway may have
abandoned its duty, giving
way to touts and hoodlums
to take over the
management of the road.
In their crude manner,
the street urchins have
unleashed mayhem on
motorists, battering and
extorting them to no end.
The most agonising thing
is that Vice President Yemi
Osinbajo, Works Minister,
Babatunde Fashola and
Kayode Opeifa, whose
direct responsibilityit is to
oversee the situation, keep
mum as the traffic situation
in the area goes worse.
Also, the Lagos State
governor, Babajide Sanwo-
Olu who should intervene
to save his state appears
not interested.
Some of the articulated
vehicles drivers, who spoke
to Vanguard, lamented that
in addition to the
humiliation they suffer in
the hands of the touts, each
truck is forced to part with
not less than N50,000 to
that they will restructure
Nigeria.
“Unfortunately, when
they came in they
refused to do that, and
people were surprised.
In fact Nigerians started
asking questions on that,
reminding them that this
is what you said you will
do, that was why they
(APC government)
decided to set up that
El-Rufai’s committee.
“I am just hearing it
now that the draft bill was
stepped down, that must
have been an internal
thing within the party,
and it means that they
were not honest in the
first instance, because if
they stepped it down in
2014 against 2015, why
would they step it down
when the committee met.
“I think they are not
honest to Nigerians. And
PANDEF is asking
Nigerians to stand up
and save this country
instead of leaving it to go
in disarray before they
will now say okay we
want to restructure it.
This is the time to do it,
in fact before the next
election.
Nkanga noted that El-
Rufai’s information
however was not
necessary now, as
PANDEF would not stop
talking about
restructuring the country
He reiterated that
restructuring Nigeria is
not in the hands of any
individual, group or
political party, stressing
that “it is a national
discuss and the whole
country must stand up
and restructure it, it is
what can save this
country.”
APAPA TRAFFIC CHAOS:
Osinbajo, Fashola, Sanwo-Olu look
away as traffic gridlock worsens
By Theodore Opara,
Kingsley Adeboye &
Victor Ahiuma-
Young
N70,000 every day.
One of the drivers, said
the way they extort us, we
may end up spending up
to N100,000 daily before we
are given access to our
destination.
The situation has also
increased the rate of
accident in the area. A
source close to the Federal
Road Safety Corps told
Vanguard that a total of
57 road traffic accidents
were captured on the
axis between October
2019 and 2020 which
claimed the lives of 16
people. The source also
stated that 12 of the
accidents were fatal and
22 minor cases.
When contacted, the
Lagos Sector
Commander of Federal
Road Safety Corps,
FRSC, Olusegun
Ogungbemide said: “We
are going to add more
men on the axis pending
the time a permanent
solution will be found.
“The problem is a
national one and needs
input from all
stakeholders including
business operators
around this corridor.
“I am aware that the
Nigeria Ports Authority is
addressing it by
concessioning Lilipon.
They are trying to bring
up the call up system to
effectively address the
problem,” he stated.
Speaking to Vanguard,
President of the Nigeria
Union of Petroleum and
Natural Gas Workers,
NUPENG, Prince
William Akporeha, said
“the protest that
followed the #EndSARS
crisis led to the
congestion in the ports.
Already, some parts of
the country are
experiencing scarcity of
petroleum products.
Since Monday when
normalcy started
returning, our members
(Tanker drivers), from
almost all parts of the
country are rushing to
Lagos to lift products.
The same thing for
containerized trucks as
trucks drivers are trying
to return empty trucks,
while imported cargoes
stranded in the ports are
finding their ways out of
the ports.
“If you check, because
I was there very early
today (yesterday), while
we try to ensure that our
members are orderly,
other heavy duty trucks
are compounding the
situation because we
have no control over
them. Unfortunately, the
task force team members
that were enforcing
orderliness are now
nowhere to be found
probably because of
safety concerns. So, all
stakeholders need to
cooperate to ensure free
flow of traffic.”
He dismissed
allegation that the union
officials were collecting
money to pass tankers,
saying “those I saw today
(yesterday) were touts
and not union members.
In any case, we do not
collect union dues on the
roads. People need to
understand how
NUPENG operates.
Anybody can claim to be
a NUPENG official to do
anything unethical. That
is one of the reasons we
have a monitory team to
ensure
that
unscrupulous
individuals do not drag
our name to the mud. We
need to also call on
government to fix the
roads leading to the ports
and tank farms because
if the roads are
motorable, I am sure we
may not be experiencing
this problem.