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Tony Osauzo, Benin
Former Provost Marshal of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier-General Ikponmwen Idada (rtd), yesterday, said the challenges that led to the current protests across the country, predated the current administration but stated that the administration it is not doing enough to justify the confidence Nigerians reposed in it when it was voted in 2015 and 2019.
Idada who was commenting on the EndSARS protests, recommended that well meaning and respected Nigerians from all walks of life should engage the demonstrators and act as intermediaries between them and the government to meet their demands.
“This thing has been lurking and nobody did anything so it got to a point that the masses now know that they have power and once that situation is reached, you don’t know who to go to, you don’t know who to call unless well meaning people, respected people begin to appeal now.
“It is unfortunate that we have reached this level where we don’t know where to go but government is about the people and government has a duty to listen to the people. What we are having now is a cumulative effect of inaction but the government is about the people and should listen to the genuine demands of the people.
“Nobody is asking for anything impossible, we as a government and as a people must come out with the kind of government, the kind of constitution that will please the people across board. When we get to a stage where the government is not ready to go through the evolution the people are asking for, it will now get to a revolution.
“The problem we are having is not just the creation of one government just that people expect more than they are seeing from this government. It is not Buhari’s problem alone, it has been there since when the military handed over in 1999 but successive governments refused to listen, they are all to blame because they will not listen, they do what they want. PDP governed Nigeria for 16 years so will you say the APC government has been responsible for all the problems, it was inherited but the APC government should show more commitment, they too have not been able to redeem their own campaign promises.
“The handing over by the military a constitution that is so defective is part of the problem. We cannot have a good government if the constitution is bad; the constitution is so faulty in so many ways that you begin to wonder where do we put good governance on top? The constitution is the fundamental law. All the good values that our founding fathers put in place and used to negotiate a Federal Republic of Nigeria have been thrown aside. We have a unitary system that is being paraded as federal”, Gen. Idada said.
