• Saturday, April 20, 2024
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Obaseki flays Buhari-led administration, blames rising insecurity on mismanagement of nation’s economy

Edo to rank top 3 by GDP in Nigeria – Obaseki

The Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki on Tuesday attributed the persistent security challenges across the nation to the manner in which the ruling party has mismanaged the economy.

Obaseki stated this in Benin City while receiving members of the South-South zone working committee of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) led by its National vice chairman, Dan Orbih.

The governor, who pointed a finger at the ruling party, said that “lawlessness, indiscipline by the ruling party has brought us to where we are.”

He, however, urged Nigerians not to lose hope in the country amid the challenges confronting the country but work collectively to ensure a better Nigeria.

“The way the ruling party has managed and mismanaged the economy of this country is the reason why we are having the level of insecurity that we are faced today.

“We should not lose hope in Nigeria but focus on how to create confidence to give our people hope by managing the country well. The challenges of insecurity just show the dysfunctionality of our federal system.

“We run a federation; we have three tiers of government: Federal, State and Local Governments. Why should security be exclusive to the federal level? What happened to the other two? Until we address that structural imbalance, we are not going to be able to deal with security at its core.

“The country has a major problem and it’s only the PDP that can help the President solve the problem but not his party. Let us as party men and Nigerians help rescue the nation and call on those that have the capacity to rescue Nigeria. Security is local and we can rescue this nation; that is why Edo is relatively peaceful.

“In the South-South, we must stand up to defend ourselves economically, politically and security wise. We have pretenders in the region who try to exploit the region and we must stop them.

“When you concentrate resources at the centre, you can’t get results. The security structure that we have in Nigeria has expired; we need a new security arrangement. The system that we operated till now is not tenable,” Obaseki said.

Earlier, Dan Orbih urged the governor to lead the stand for state policing, noting “that it’s time to rejig the security architecture of Nigeria. We urge you to lend your voice to the struggle to make the country safe for all.

“The South-West and South-East have both formed a security network to protect its people. As South-South, we need to look for a way to check insecurity and protect our people in the region.”