Yoruba World Congress has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to return Nigeria to a constitutional Republic, in accordance with the structure of government as outlined in the constitution.
The group slammed Buhari and his late Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari of running the country like a Banana Republic in the last five years.
Evidence of this, the group said was conveyed in the TV eulogy given on 18 April by Mr. Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Buhari.
“We of the Yoruba World Congress (YWC ), an umbrella body of all Socio-cultural and Self-determination groups within and beyond Nigeria hereby draw the attention of all Nigerians to the final statements of Garba Shehu’s eulogy.
“Garba Shehu said that the fact of Abba Kyari’s passage does not mean that there is a vacuum in the government of Nigeria;
“That though Abba Kyari had been away for one month before he died, yet the job of government had not stopped; that there is a structure in place to ensure continuity, even though it is the president’s eventual responsibility to decide who takes over from Abba Kyari”.
YWC in a statement by its President, Emeritus Professor Banji Akintoye said it was implied by Shehu that Nigeria was being run as a Banana Republic, a country in which the structure of government depends on the whims and caprices of the leader of the government.
The group rejected the governance style as outrageous and unacceptable and that it should stop immediately.
“Nigeria is a fully constitutional republic in which the structure of government is laid down by the constitution.
“Therefore, it is outrageous and unacceptable that constitutionally provided for, and constitutionally appointed, office holders of the government of Nigeria should, under any circumstances, be subjected to the absurdity of having to go through the Chief of Staff to see the President.
“We are talking of high public officials such as Ministers, Ambassadors, Top federal Career civil servants, State Governors, National Assembly members and, to our collective embarrassment, even the Vice-president.
“A Chief of Staff is no more than the head of the president’s kitchen cabinet, the president’s own personal collection of personal staff, that has no superiority to the structural pillars established by the constitution of Nigeria.
“Abba Kyari’s unconstitutional position as de facto president in recent times, coupled with an elected President who is periodically nowhere to be found, has seriously denuded the legitimacy of government in our country.
“It represents the ultimate manifestation of the seizure of government by a cabal belonging to a small section of our country, an unconstitutional seizure of government that is being effected and perpetuated by impunity, and by spiteful disregard of the respect due to the other sections and nationalities of our country who together constitute the majority in our country.
“We the majority of Nigerians have watched with shock and pain, and other nations of the world have been looking at us with total disbelief and pity, as our country has been run like the personal estate of a small cabal.
” We have a Vice President who has been boxed into a disrespectful corner simply because he does not belong to the self-appointed owners of our country”, concluded the YWC statement.
