Southern Govs’ Call for Power Shift Can Cause Nigeria’s Break Up, Warns PSC

*Faults deadline to states on anti-grazing law

Olawale Ajimotokan

A support group of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Presidential Support Committee (PSC) has warned that the demand of the Southern Governors Forum for power shift in 2023 could lead to the breakup of Nigeria.

The committee, also, faulted the decision of the forum at its last meeting in Lagos State to make the violation of the anti-grazing law an offence attracting jail sentence.

The Director, Media and Publicity of the group, Dr. Kailani Mohammad, served the warning over the weekend after the inauguration of PSC national officers in Abuja.

At the inauguration, Mohammad said the North would not be compelled to yield to the demand by the southern governors because the North has the advantage of a voting bloc.

“We don’t see how the governors should be confronting the President. Look at their insistence that power should shift to the south in 2023. We are also Nigerians and we have the bulk of the votes in the North.

“It is a matter of give and take; it is not an issue of making it a must. If they are saying it is a must- it means they are looking for something- like breaking up the country. That is just a simple analogy,” the publicity director said.

He likened the second governors’ summit as a gang up against the President, saying their resolution was not in tandem with democratic norms.

“For setting a deadline to stop open grazing even when President Muhammadu Buhari has made a statement in that regard, is an open confrontation against the President. It is not a wise political decision.

“It is disturbing that elected officials would come out with an ultimatum in defiance of the opinion of a sitting President in a matter that could have been settled by a caucus within the Governor’s Forum or at the party level.

“To resort to a direct confrontation with the President is unfortunate. Unfortunately, our politicians have deviated from the very foundation of unity of our founding fathers,” he said.

He warned that the threat by the governors to promulgate the anti-grazing law by September 1, 2021 will result in a clash of interest between the federal government and the state governments.

The PSC also expressed dismay with some commentary on the arrest and prosecution of the leader of the proscribed Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu for treason and jumping of bail. The group urged the public to allow the law to take its full course without any prejudice as the matter is now before the court.

The body also demanded that Kanu be given a fair hearing in line with the principles of the Rule of Law.

The presidential support committee insisted the constitution that mandates the federal government to defend the corporate existence and unity of the country, would have been deemed lacking if it had folded its arms and watched Kanu in his rampaging campaign of dismemberment of the Nigerian state.

The PSC noted that if there was any genuine desire for the creation of Biafra, such agitation must be tabled and discussed in a civilised manner in the National Assembly by credible, experienced and articulate leaders from the South- east zone.

It described Kanu as an opportunist, who is junketing from one part of the globe to another, collecting funds from unsuspecting sympathisers.