Presidential Aspirant Backs Restructuring, Special Status for Lagos

By Oladipupo Awojobi

A presidential aspirant under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Saminu Tanimu Turaki, has thrown his weight behind restructuring and the call for special status for Lagos State.

Turaki, who was addressing members of the PDP at the Lagos State secretariat of the party on Tuesday, emphasised that restructuring based on true federalism, resource control, devolution of power, creation of additional states for the South East and creation of more local governments for Lagos State were dear to his heart.

Turaki stated that successive governments in Nigeria had been stumbling blocks to the realisaton of the spirit and letters of the nation’s constitution.

The aspirant said any law that was against restructuring would be amended under his government so that the country’s federalism could be made better.

The politician, who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), told the teeming members of the party during the visit that it’s a common knowledge that Nigerians were suffering from chronic insecurity.

“We are not safe on the streets, in our homes, Nigerians are hungry, angry and we are highly impatient. Nigerians are doubting if we could remain together with the way this present government is behaving.

“We are beginning to lose interest in the government of the country. This is a union that has been there for long. Doubts have been put in our minds if the Nigerian project will survive. The All Progressives Congress (APC) lied to us, they have continued to lie to us.

“In 2015, during the electioneering campaign, President Muhammadu Buhari promised to stop medical tourism, and ensure that everybody is treated in Nigeria, but he is the number one medical tourist in Nigeria today.

“Buhari said that the office of the first lady would be scrapped and that he would eradicate Boko Haram, yet people are still being killed by Boko Haram in Yobe State, Borno and Adamawa States,” he said.

Turaki added that while the Federal Government claimed to have defeated Boko Haram, people are still being killed in Plateau, Kogi, Benue and Adamawa States as well as in the South East and in the South West and that nobody had been convicted.

The presidential aspirant promised to treat criminals as criminals if elected President, saying that the APC government is biased and that the government treats some criminals with levity based on tribal sentiments, which is why people are being killed on a daily basis.