Okunnu blasts political parties, says they should agitate for better welfare for their people
- The Senior Advocate of Nigeria and former federal commissioner for works and housing Olufemi Okunnu has lambasted the present crop of politicians
- Okunnu urged the different ethnic groups to stop playing politics with their region's development
- He added that given the structure of major political parties which spread across all states, there should not be a question of marginalisation
Senior Advocate of Nigeria and former federal commissioner for works and housing, Olufemi Okunnu, in an interview with Punch called on Ohanaeze, Arewa and Afenifere to stop playing politics.
Okunnu, said All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party have membership across the country.
''But these were parties which had been tested over the years and they were the standard-bearers of agitation for progress in the country, since they were the governing parties to carry out development in their different parts of the country. So, it wasn’t a question of marginalisation,'' he said.
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He said that Nigeria is not used to agitation about marginalisation, saying that it is a new phenomenon in recent years.
According to him, It’s unfortunate that current political parties don’t agitate for the people unlike those days when the agitation was by political parties.
Legit.ng gathered that the senior advocate of Nigeria and former federal commissioner for works and housing said that politics is dominated by ethnicity.
He said: ‘’It’s also unfortunately dominated by religion. These two should not feature in the political arena.
‘’So, marginalisation by fellow Nigerians in the South-East is in the forefront of the agitation now. And when they say marginalisation, they want federal presence.
‘’As I’ve said earlier, they need federal roads, which have been abandoned all over the country most of them, since I built them as a federal commissioner.
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'In my time, I started the construction of most of the roads. Most of the roads constructed 40 years ago have not been reconstructed, repaired or rehabilitated.
''He added that there is nothing to do with marginalisation saying that it was ethnic warfare in a way.
He said: ''At the time of military intervention in politics, there were purely established political parties.
‘’There was the Northern People’s Congress, which was the northern people’s party running the government in the northern region of the country. There was Action Group, the governing party in the old western Nigeria.
Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has lashed out at Ralph Uwazuruike for saying violence and guns cannot achieve Biafra but a non-violence approach.
The former leader of the group who left to form the Biafra Independent Movement (BIM) after he was expelled had said he had learnt that arms would not bring about Biafra but MASSOB countered accusing Uwazuruike of only thinking about protecting his business rather than achieving Biafra.
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Source: Legit.ng
