• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Only true federalism can solve Nigeria’s challenges – Alabi

Only true federalism can solve Nigeria’s challenges – Alabi

Banji Alabi, the Chairman of the Governing Council, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic (RUGIPO) Owo, Ondo State, on Sunday disclosed that nation was not at peace because the country has failed to practice true federalism.

Alabi made the disclosure while delivering a lecture titled: “The Role Of Students In Building A Better Nation,” on the occasion of Owo Local Government Area ‘Students Day 2020’.

He, therefore, said it was only true federalism that could solve Nigeria security challenges and put the country on the path of accelerated development.

“It is time now to restore this country to a true federation with all the attributes and nuances of a federal state,” he said.

Alabi, who is an accountant and tax consultant, said true federalism and resource control could only come again if another Yoruba man could become President after the second term of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.

He said, “we need regional government and a weak centre. In 1896 there was no Nigeria as a country when the Yorubas began the railway construction and operation in the Iddo area of Lagos, serving between Lagos and Abeokuta a distance of 96 kilometres.

“In 1901 there was no Nigeria when the Yorubas set up the railway that served between Lagos- Ibadan route without borrowing a dime.

“In 1906, before Nigeria was created, the Yorubas commenced the Apapa wharf and concluded it 1913, which is now generating over N6 trillion every year.

Read also: Lesson for Nigeria: True federalism is the best route to progress

“The Lagos international airport was built in 1947 by the Yorubas, it is generating over USD 140 every year. Also in 1897 the first power generating plant was commissioned in Lagos that powered the Yoruba nation.

“In 1959 the first 60,000 seating capacity sport stadium was established at Ibadan, the first of its kind in Africa and Asia. The best teaching hospital in Africa – the UCH, Ibadan was established before the birth of the entity known as Nigeria today.

“We know the ingredients for creating wealth, jobs and opportunities in Yoruba land. Therefore, a Yoruba man must be our next president, for Nigeria to achieve her full potentials.

“The ingredients to create wealth is known to us in Yoruba land, they are not a secret. So let’s embrace reforms that attract the establishment of industries that can employ five thousand people at a time to every local government in the Yoruba land.”

Alabi, who also expressed worry over the high rate of insecurity in the country, said the consequences of extreme poverty in Northern part of the country has turned travelling on our roads in the Southwest into a big nightmare.

“Our very freedom, our ways of life are now under attack in frequent deadly armed robbery and kidnapping attack by people escaping from the poverty in the north, they are now known as Fulani herdsmen killing and maiming all over Nigeria.

“The gruesome murder of one of our first class Obas in the Southwest, the Late Olufon of Ifon in Ose Local Government Area of Ondo state, Oba Israel Adeusi, has filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger,” Alabi said.

According to him, these acts of mass murder were intended to frighten Yoruba nation into chaos and retreat.

“It is therefore, imperative that all states in the Southwest, South-South and South East must contribute to the development of the North West and North East and ensure that the feudal lords are overthrown, so that help can reach the ordinary people,” Alabi noted.