PDP Not Against Restructuring — Makarfi

Chairman, National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,  Senator Ahmed Makarfi, said, yesterday, that the party had nothing against restructuring but  stressed there was need to for a common ground on what needs to be restructured.


Makarfi, who spoke in an interview with Vanguard, said: “Because it (restructuring) means different things to different people, there is need to sit down and build consensus on what is generally acceptable to the people, the modalities, nature and time frame should be clearly spelt out.”

This is even as the PDP, yesterday, chided the Kano State chapter of  All Progressives Congress, APC, for what it described as impunity, following failure of Speaker of the state House of Assembly to swear in Abdullahi Muhammed of the PDP 21 days after the Supreme Court ordered Hayatu Musa Sallahu of the APC to vacate his seat.

Makarfi said the importance of a common ground on what needed to give way for a Nigeria that would be acceptable to all could not be over-emphasised.

“The fact that people see it differently means that something is wrong. But there is need to commonly agree on what needs to be restructured, be it economic, institutional or political.  There’s need for us to respect one another,” he said.

On calls for 2014 confab report implementation, Makarfi maintained that the National Assembly had a key role to play as representatives of the people.

He said: “If the National Assembly requests for it and it is forwarded to them, there is nothing wrong with it. People must understand that there are processes and steps to be followed.”

Meanwhile, the PDP has chided the Kano State chapter of the APC over the refusal of the Speaker of the state House of Assembly to swear in Abdullahi Muhammed of the PDP 21 days after the Supreme Court ordered Hayatu Musa Sallahu of the APC to vacate his seat.

In a statement by PDP National Publicity Secretary, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, the party said: “We call on the governor of Kano State, Attorney General of the Federation and well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the speaker of  Kano State House of Assembly to obey the rule of law and to perform his constitutional duty by swearing in Mr. Abdullahi Mohammed without further delay.”

“Meanwhile we are looking at all legal options to bring the erring Speaker to book for this constitutional violation.

“We fought hard for this democracy. We sustained it for sixteen good years. We will not allow it to be destroyed by the recklessness of those who are intoxicated by power.”