Asiwaju Bola Tinubu
A
former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, says there is a
need for the country to undergo a “common sense” revolution.
Tinubu, who is a national leader of the
All Progressives Congress said the many years of misrule by successive
Peoples Democratic Party presidents had continued to sink the country
further into crisis.
The former governor said this in a statement titled ‘A Return to Decency’, on Monday.
He described the 16 years of PDP rule at the federal level as a period of steady decline into disaster.
He said, “The longer they rule, the less
benefit the people derive. Nigeria now needs a ‘common sense
revolution,’ a revolution that calls forth a return to decency, probity,
transparency of process and fairness in outcome.
“This is done not by subterfuge, divide
and rule and turning Nigeria in a field of discord or a street of broken
institutions. It is accomplished by honouring the principles of
democratic good governance and economic justice. It is done by
persuading the people they are better off as one instead of better off
tearing at one another’s throats.
“Nigerians should be prepared for
change. We must rescue Nigeria from those set to cause it irreparable
harm. The change I talk about is the only route to our deliverance from
16 years of the PDP locusts. Nigeria is ours to keep and its democracy
is ours to save.”
He advised that this year’s Independence
Day should be a time of sober reflection because other countries that
received independence at the same time as Nigeria had since surpassed
the country.
He described the Nigeria of today as the
nightmare of its founding fathers. Tinubu further berated the PDP-led
Federal Government of using religion to divide Nigerians.
He said, “We commemorate this
Independence Day because the nation has survived despite its many
challenges. We dare not celebrate because the nation has not flourished
as it should. Fifty four years our national trek began with hope and
promise, peace and unity.
“Today, the nation staggers beneath the
weight of trouble multiplied by hardship. Peace and unity seem to have
yielded the moment to violence and discord. We exist as a political unit
on a map but we do not prosper as brothers and sisters in one nation,
under one flag and pursuant to one accord.”
“Never has an elected government in
Nigeria employed religion as a tool to divide the people, setting
Nigerian brother against brother in a manner that allows this
administration to function at the basest level of governance while
seeking to establish a political domination that seeks no greater
purpose than its self-perpetuation.”
He described attempts to stigmatise and
physically intimidate the APC and the militarisation of elections as
features of a perverse democracy.
He described President Goodluck Jonathan’s transformation agenda as an avenue to siphon funds through a dubious blueprint.
“They do not have a national blueprint
or vision. They do have a blueprint and vision for excessive
self-enrichment. Their equation is simple: You work, they feast. You
toil, they grow fat. You seek a decent wage; they pilfer the collective
treasury to enjoy a king’s ransom,” he said.
He said rather than promote religious
tolerance and harmonious living, Jonathan’s government believes its
electoral chances are enhanced by promoting ethnicism, internal
divisions and religious suspicion but “successful nations are not built
this way, have we not learned the lesson that we paid the high price of
civil war to learn.”
PUNCH
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