Tackle Separatist Agitations by Democratic Means -John Odigie-Oyegun

A former governor of Edo state and past national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has called on the Buhari led administration to tackle the separatist agitations in the country by democratic means rather than deployment of the military.

Odigie-Oyegun stated this on Sunday in Abuja, during the public presentation of a book, APC’s Litmus Tests, written by Director-General of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), Salihu Moh. Lukman.

According to him, the world is facing challenges, things are bad, people are hungry and angry and therefore it is not questionable but lamented on the current security challenge in the country.

“I hope that we will begin to get control of the security of this nation,” he said.
Odigie-Oyegun noted that the earlier the APC-led government tackle the rising challenges, the better it will be to ease the stress the nation is going through.

“Let me refer to just one aspect of what Governor Atiku Bagudu said. That is the document on true federalism which the party put together that passed through all the organs of the party. The executive of the party, the NWC, the Caucus, the NEC which is the highest organ of the party.

“Why did we do it at that time? We did it because like, it is happening today, there was this cacophony of voices. Two people in the party could not agree on what they meant by restructuring. So, the party needed to take control of the debate, define the issues, proffer solutions and went so far as to have some drafts of legislation. It is not by any chance a perfect document.

“But it reflects then the thinking and the desires of the Nigerian people. Everybody kept quiet after we brought that document out, publicised it, held press conferences over it and most Nigerians were very, very happy. But once again, we did not make the kind of progress that we could have made and it has become once more, the topical subject in the Nigerian polity.

“Unfortunately, it has gone beyond us, we now have one or two things that did not happen before, people now wanting to disengage from the federation, which did not happen before and that is a warning sign. If a child asks for garri today you don’t give him, tomorrow he may decide it’s the cake he wants and we must not, as a political party, we must not as the government of the federation, give the impression that only military governments can fundamentally tamper with the basic structure of this nation, he added.”