Southern group seeks support for Buhari

A Southern group, The Southern Nigeria Peoples Mandate (SNPM), has urged residents of the region, especially those in the Southeast, to stop condemning President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

The group’s President Augustine Chukwudum told our reporter yesterday in Calabar, the state capital, that it was not justifiable that former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governments squandered the nation’s resources in the past 16 years and put the heat on the Buhari administration, less than two months in office.

The group consists of Concerned Southsouth Movement, Southwest Business League, Southeast Peoples Agenda and Ndigbo Unity Forum.

Chukwudum said: “This government has been in office for less than two months and every Nigerian, who has conscience and is honest, would notice that there is a difference between this government and the past leadership of the PDP, which squandered our resources for 16 years without achieving anything for this country.

“President Buhari’s government has brought sanity, as everyone can see. Now, we want Nigerians to appreciate the good things that would come out of this government, not by continuing to do tribal politics. Our advice is going to the people of Southsouth and Southeast, the Ndigbo in particular. They should stop attacking this government. They should give all the support the government needs so that from there, they can contribute their quota to the development of this country. The country belongs to all of us.”

On the crisis in the National Assembly, he said: “We want to remind the leadership of the National Assembly, led by Senator Bukola Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara, that they should respect the decision of their party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), which made them to become members in the first place. They do not have any right to go against the will of the party. We want to condemn them and let them know that without APC, they would not be in the National Assembly.

“So, we are calling on them to obey party supremacy. We want to commend Senator Bola Tinubu, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu and President Muhammadu Buhari for the mature way they have been handling the issues. We call on Saraki and Dogara to resign with immediate effect since the party does not want them.”

The spokesman urged the government to expedite action on the country’s refineries and stop fuel subsidy.

Chukwudum said: “The government should expedite action on refineries and fuel subsidy. If $2 billion can give us a refinery that can refine 200,000 barrels of crude oil, then there is no need importing fuel into this country and selling it at N110 per litre. Kerosene, at N130, is too expensive for the ordinary man to buy. We are appealing to the President to stop this subsidy, because nothing is subsidised for us. We want to appeal that within 12 months, fuel importation should end. Let our refineries be revived.”