By Arowona Abdulazeez
Owing to the increase in the agitations for the restructuring of the nation from different quarters, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje has called on the federal government to study the various reports on constitutional amendment in the country in order to arrive at a suitable solution to the growing call for restructuring and power devolution in the country.
ROYAL NEWS reports that Baraje stated this while speaking with journalists during the graduation of the 2107 set of students from his Baraje Centre for Arabic and Islamic Studies in Ilorin, Kwara state, said having been a participant at the 2005 conference, he was sure that the
solution to the agitation already exists.
He also expressed delight over the safe return of President Muhammadu
Buhari to Nigeria from London where he had gone on medical vacation.
The party chieftain who served as National Secretary and Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) at various times before decamping to the APC along wit the nPDP group, said if the recommendations of the various constitutional conferences were adopted it would resolve the current challenges that have led to agitation for restructuring.
According to him, “Each conference normally adopt from he series of
recommendations of previous ones in order to arrive at their own,
hence most of the recommendations are always similar.
He said:”Even before I joined politics, I have always believed in the
devolution of power but you see the way some of our colleagues in
politics have been using it to confuse the people to suit their
purpose and that is why we must commend the National Assembly who kept telling us that they need to get clarification and support from their
various constituencies on the matter. I spoke with at least nine
different senators when the matter came up and individually they told
me they needed to talk with their people.”
On the forthcoming local government election in Kwara state, Baraje
asked members of the APC to cooperate with the political structure in
the state to repeat its winning formula.
He, however, declined questions on his possible gubernatorial
ambition, saying it is only the party structure that would make the
decision at the right time.
Baraje noted that it would be difficult to stop those agitating for his
emergence since such agitation will also eventually assist the system
in the state to make the right choice eventually.
On the recent wave of crime, particularly ritual related activities in
the state capital, Baraje who lamented the development as a strange
occurrence, called on notable leaders and Islamic clerics in the
ancient city to rise to the occasion as their progenitors ha done in
time past to bring the ugly development to an end and avoid the
negative verdict of posterity.
