Atiku Attacks APC Senators: You Betrayed Our Election Promise By Rejecting Restructuring

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has described as “shocking and saddening”, the rejection of restructuring by the All Progressives Congress-controlled Nigerian Senate.

The WHISTLER recalls that 48 of the 95 Senators present at the Senate on Wednesday voted against devolution of powers to states.

The APC chieftain, in a statement by his media office in Abuja, described the action by the APC lawmakers as “a lost opportunity to honour one of the party’s election promises to bring about change by shifting power closer to the people in the remotest regions of our country.

“This blockage of the Bill by an APC-led Senate majority is a betrayal of our Party’s pre-election promises,” Mr. Atiku said.

“It was an important vote and I’m shocked by some so-called progressives’ visceral and cynical opposition to restructuring.”

Atiku said, “instead of building the foundations for a true federation, a small group of so-called progressive senators decided to stick with the new party line, pretending they did not know what restructuring were all about, and that even if they knew, it couldn’t be done.

“I think this is disingenuous.

“And I think it is a sad day for our Party. But I’m confident the APC will learn the right lesson from this self-inflicted defeat, and remember the mission and mandate given to us by the people.”

“Let me be clear: Restructuring is no panacea to all our nation’s problems. But devolving resources and responsibilities from an overbearing, unresponsive, and ineffective federal government to the states is the first step we must make if we are serious about putting our nation back on track, and our people back to work,” he said.