We Won’ t Be In This Mess If There’d Been Restructuring
THE Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, SMBLF, said yesterday that Nigeria would not have found itself in the current state of the coronavirus pandemic if Nigeria was restructured.
The forum, however, commended the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 for the steps taken so far in sensitizing Nigerians on the global pandemic noting that “what we had was a total failure of the system and not committee per se.”
In a statement by leaders of the forum Chief E. K Clark (South South), Chief Ayo Adebanjo (South West) Chief John Nwodo (South East) and Dr. John Pogu (Middle Belt), the SMBLF said that having survived the first wave of COVID-19 with minimal damage, it is time to address the challenges facing the country.
The statement reads: “The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, SMBLF, has some words of commendation for the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 for their above the usual average Nigerian performance in sensititizing our people to the global pandemic ongoing.
“But for their dropping the ball at the burial of Malam Abba Kyari, the committee would have scored well in our marking scheme. We, however, noted their apology which we will always want to see as a pattern in governance moving on.
“Even when the committee was chaired by SGF Boss Mustapha, who confessed he didn’t know much about the bad state of the health infrastructure in the country, we wonder if that would have been the take of the man who was on the ballot if he was given the job. The PTF still did their best in the circumstance in keeping our people informed of most of what they needed to keep them abreast of.
“But at the end of it all, what we had was a total failure of the system and not committee per se.
“But for God who was kind to us, we were not prepared to confront a health challenge at the level of coronavirus that was taking down Prime Ministers and Kings around the world.
“Now that we have survived the first wave of COVID-with minimal damage, it is the time to recalibrate as only those who have serious challenges would now think we can return to the careless and reckless lives we were living in the past.
“Now that the post-oil older is knocking our door is not when to be looking at oil receipts to determine limited and controlled wealth anymore as only the competitive in other areas of human endeavors will make it in global endeavors henceforth.
“The era of awarding road contracts, taking kickbacks and issuing checks is gone for good. We may have to convert our youths to the road army as the Chinese did in the thirties.
“Unlike in the era we had the time to campaign for federalism, everyone will have to take issues in federalism as a matter of survival this time or to perish is the unkind alternative.
“We would not be in the mess of states waiting for Federal Government to come and be opening isolation centres for them if we had run this country as a truly Federal Republic with federating units standing on their own with adequate resources being managed by them and legally agreed taxes paid to the central government for common services. The wages of our sins are here with us and we have a little window to amend our ways.”
Vanguard
