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.
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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.”
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