Restructuring: Atiku reveals how VP Osinbajo lied to Nigerians

Former Vice President and the flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2019 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, has accused Vice President Yemi Osinbajo of being economical with the truth in accusing the Atiku of not being in support of restructuring while in office between 1999 and 2007 as the Vice President.

Atiku in a statement issued by his campaign office in Abuja on Sunday October 28th, 2018 recalled that while speaking at a public lecture, entitled: ‘Developing the Nation through Youth Empowerment’, as part of activities marking the 68th anniversary of the Sigma Club, University of Ibadan, Professor Osinbajo said: “All this time, this was 2000, some of those people, including the presidential candidate of PDP, who is talking about restructuring, was the vice president then; they opposed every step that we took. Of course, we were taking the Federal Government to court then. They opposed every step.”

The statement said given that restructuring has become the major issue in the 2019 elections and given that Prof Osinbajo and President Muhammadu Buhari have been speaking discordant tunes on restructuring, “we can understand their desperation to revise history, however, it is impossible to revise documented history.”

The statement posited that Osinbajo needed to be reminded that there are well-documented accounts in the Nigerian media chronicling Atiku Abubakar’s support and struggle for restructuring.

It noted: “To set the records straight, we recommend to Professor Osinbajo the article ‘Nigeria: 6-1 Onshore-Offshore Jurisdiction Verdict’ written by Jide Ajani, then the Political Editor of Vanguard Newspapers and published on July 13, 2001.

The successful efforts of His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar, to restructure the revenue allocation formulae to allow littoral states of the federation benefit from offshore oil proceeds. Ironically, it was precisely Mr Osinbajo’s boss, Muhammadu Buhari, who as a military dictator, cheated these states of their just due by military fiat.

“It is also common knowledge that the six geopolitical zones structure which all parts of Nigeria benefit from today is the fruit of the collaborative efforts of His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar, the late Alex Ekwueme and other patriots.

“Their efforts at restructuring Nigeria are captured in the Hansard of the 1995 Constitutional Conference, which is a public document and is still available at the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. Professor Osinbajo may want to familiarise himself with that document.

“The question we want to ask Professor Osinbajo is this – why do he and his boss constantly resort to rewriting history? Why can they not campaign on their achievements? Is it that they are forced to campaign on subterfuge because they have no achievements to campaign on?”

The statement also recalled that President Buhari and Vice President Osinbajo promised to make ₦1 equal to $1, adding: “They vowed to create three million jobs per annum. They promised to pay the unemployed a “job seekers allowance”. They said subsidy was a scam. They also said that they would defeat Boko Haram.

“Nigerians want to know if these promises have been kept. They are not interested in fairy tales about how Atiku Abubakar did not support restructuring because they know that he is and was and will always be an active promoter of restructuring.

“Everywhere he goes to campaign, Atiku Abubakar has used temperate and respectful language on both President Buhari and Vice President Osinbajo. He has campaigned on his record of achievements, which include the 50,000 jobs he has created in his private capacity, and on his policies and plans to Get Nigeria Working Again.

“We recommend this form of decent politicking to Prof. Osinbajo, even as we urge him to remember that as Vice President, his words matter.”