Nigerian federalism is fraudulent – Tinubu, Aregbesola, Fashola

The leadership of the Action Congress of Nigeria has described the country’s federalism as anti-people.

Leaders of the party, who spoke at an induction ceremony held in Osogbo for all ACN’s legislators, nationwide, on Thursday, said the country’s federalism ran counter to development.

The leaders, who spoke at the ceremony included the National Chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande; a former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; Osun State Governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, Lagos State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola, and the National Secretary of the party, Dr Usman Bugaje.

A cross-section of the leaders called for a review of the constitution to reflect the desires of the citizenry.

In his paper entitled, Leadership and party supremacy, Akande said, “The twin major ingredients of cohesion and discipline are leadership and ideology.

“Ideology represents objectives while leadership provides social influence that motivates people to serve.

“We are constantly promising Nigerians to effect a measured change from what Peoples Democratic Party had fraudulently been doing in the past 12 years.”

Tinubu said the Federal Government had no solution to the myriad problems besetting the country, stressing that the government at the centre was perpetrating corruption via the country’s federal structure.

The National Secretary of the party, Dr Usman Bugaje, said only the ACN was capable of providing the template for Nigeria’s greatness, stressing that the party would continue to work out the political salvation of the country.

Tinubu contended that it was wrong for the Federal Government to unilaterally fix a minimum wage for the 36 states of the country.

Tinubu explained that it was wrong of the Federal Government to unilaterally operate the Excess Crude Account, sell national properties and institutions without giving the proceeds to the state governments.

He said, “The country’s Constitution was not written, debated and adopted by the generality of Nigerians. It was the military that wrote it without inputs from the generality of Nigerians. Sovereignty, in our constitution, was taken from the people and given to the Federal Government.”

Fashola called for a new allocation sharing formula, which would see the Federal Government receiving 35 per cent of the country’s monetary resources while the states take 42 per cent and local government takes 23 per cent.

Like Tinubu, Fashola faulted the Federal Government for fixing the minimum wage for all states, saying that the action negated productivity and creativity.

Fashola, who explained that the minimum wage of blue collar jobs could be fixed, however, argued that it is difficult to fix the wage of white collar jobs.

Supporting the clamour for the establishment of state police, Fashola described the present arrangement wherein the Federal Government controls the police as an aberration.

He said the creation of state police was a veritable avenue of providing mass employment to teeming Nigerian youths, adding that it was wrong of the Federal Government to keep the money charged on Value Added Tax.