TheCable

Aminu Tambuwal, governor of Sokoto, says Nigeria must be restructured for the country to overcome its current challenges.

The chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors’ forum spoke on Tuesday at an event organised for the newly elected officers of the party in Abuja.

Tambuwal said the PDP is ready to work to ensure that Nigeria achieves greatness.

“It is indeed time to rescue and rebuild Nigeria. Nigeria is in urgent need of a surgical operation; Nigeria is in a permanent emergency,” he said.

“We all know what the problems are. They are man-made and it is therefore resolvable. It requires a focused, determined, knowledgeable and patriotic organisation of like minds to build the critical mass necessary for a great leap forward. Yes, it requires leadership with vision and discipline.

“We suffer from a crisis of governance. The unity of Nigeria is facing unprecedented challenges. Life in Nigeria is increasingly becoming brutish and short as insecurity ravages the land. Poverty is the forte of the ordinary Nigerian. The health and education of our people have not improved. Our people are in want; the economy is in dire straits with the exchange rate now about N540 to a dollar from the N150 to a dollar when PDP left office. Prices of foodstuffs and essential commodities are unsustainable — clearly beyond the reach of the average Nigerian.

“Between 35 to 40% of Nigerians are unemployed and women and youths bear the main brunt. Bandits, kidnappers, terrorists are having a field day almost unchallenged. Our children are not safe even in their schools.

“Corruption still stalks the land. Nepotism, ethnic and religious bigotry reign supreme in today’s APC’s Nigeria. Our infrastructure is still comatose.

“Trust and hope in Nigeria is at its lowest. Our lamentations can go on, ad infinitum. But the test of leadership is the ability to solve problems. What solutions will PDP offer? What is the way forward?

“While we await these interventions, permit me to mention an issue of great importance. Nigeria must embrace restructuring to survive. It must restructure its polity, economy, security and ways of doing things. It must embrace relative autonomy and decentralisation of power. This will unleash the energies of our people, especially the young. It is time to allow Nigeria to blossom. It is doable with all hands on deck.

“Secondly, we must embrace innovation and technology as a way of life. Technology will solve the youth unemployment time bomb. Technology will improve our agriculture, health, industrialisation, education and indeed, it has implications and impacts on all facets of our lives. It is in this respect that we continue to condemn the Twitter ban as a retrogressive action that should never have happened.”

Tambuwal added that Nigeria cannot survive another four years with the All Progressives Congress (APC) in power, adding that the PDP is “the only credible alternative to APC and we cannot afford to fail Nigerians”.