The All Progressives Congress, APC has come out to say that despite being eight years old and six years in power, it still has no fewer than 54 years to go on the first tranche.

The National Chairman of the APC Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee CECPC, Governor Mai Mala Buni recently revealed this to the press, and Nigerians have been reacting.

Reacting, ex Chairman, John Oyegun revealed that the federal government should take immediate steps to address the issues of restructuring and secession, because if allowed to linger, more Nigerians could come up with fresh demands.

He added that APC is in charge today and it is a progressive government, so it is proper for the party to show Nigerians that they can provide the change citizens want.

His words, “Let me refer to just one aspect of what the governor (Bagudu) said. That is the document on true federalism which the party put together that passed through all the organs of the party, the executive of the party, the National Working Committee, the caucus, the NEC which is the highest organ of the party. Why did we do it at that time?”

‘’We did it because like it is happening today, there was this cacophony of voices. Two people in the party could not agree on what they meant by restructuring.”

“So the party needed to take control of the debate, define the issues, proffer solutions and went so far as to have some draft legislation.”

‘’It is not by any chance a perfect document, but it reflects then the thinking and desires of the Nigerian people.”

“Everybody kept quiet after we brought that document out, publicized it, held press conferences over it and most Nigerians were very, very happy.”

“But once again, we did not make the kind of progress that we could have made and it has become once more, the topical subject in the Nigerian polity.”

“Unfortunately, it has gone beyond that, we now have one or two things that did not happen before, people now wanting to disengage from the federation, which did not happen before and that is a warning sign.”

‘’If a child asks for Garri today and you don’t give him, tomorrow he may decide it is cake he wants and we must not as a political party; we must not as the government of the federation give the impression that only military governments can fundamentally tamper with the basic structure of this nation.”

“We are in charge today, a progressive government, a progressive regime and I think it is proper that we show to the nation that when the people want some degree of change, we should be responsive to it, we should address it.”

‘’Compromises have to be made, there is no question about that. The report itself is not final. It still has to go through the litmus test of compromises.”

“The ideas of people from different parts of the country will be different up to the extent they want to go with the proposals in the document, but it is necessary.”

“It is vital, it is in fact, mandatory in the interest of the survival of our nation, that these issues be addressed. We cannot continue to allow the subject to become something that threatens our nation at any turn.”

“So, the earlier we addressed it, the earlier we showed that as a party we are responsive to the feelings of the people, the desires of the people and the wants of the people, it becomes easier then to diffuse the kind of stresses that the nation is passing through today.”

“Look at what is happening. Well, it is recommended that there should be state police. Today, we are having all sorts of organizations cropping up with all sorts of names.”

“We haven’t defined their operational status, we haven’t defined their relativity properly with the established security agents and the rest.”

‘’But sitting down together, we can work it out so that we know the relativities between the existing structures and the existing institutions.”