Kaduna state governor and Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Committee on True Federalism, Malam Nasir El-Rufai has said that it would be an injustice for Nigerians to agitate for equal treatment from the federal government as the populations and resources from different regions of the country differ.
Speaking on Wednesday in Abuja at the town hall meeting organized by his committee to interact with youths, El-Rufai argued that since the representatives of such agitators were less in number, the majority must always carry the day.
“As human beings we are equal but you cannot come and stand here and say we should create nine states in each zone. Nigeria is not equal likewise the population and resources, you can’t do that.
“The greatest injustice is trying to make equal unequal things.Things are not done like that. What do I mean by that? There are those who say Nigeria and United States are the same.
“The representatives of the agitators are few in number and so the majority must always win. The president of this country exists, the Senate exists and there are 36 states of the federation. We the old ones are still there, some of us are good, some are bad likewise the youths, but you must learn to live with us because we are still here.
“Now some people say because we have oil, let us have resource control. We must think of what is of overall interest of Nigeria. By that I mean what works for everyone. Because what works for one part of the country will not necessarily work for others, so as long as we are from one country we must seek for what is of common good and not the one that serves one interest group,” he said.
El – Rufai maintained that the mistake most people were making about the concept of restructuring was that they always think about their own regions to the neglect of what happens to the entire country and expressed dismay over the low turnout of youths at the parley which he blamed on social media.
“I wished more youths came out but I recognized that more of them now communicate more in the virtual world than in the real world. So many of them contacted us on the social media so, I am far very happy with the participation of young people particularly when we went out for zonal hearings,” El – Rufai said.
“The outing here in Abuja is not as crowded as expected, but I know they are following us on social media. We’ve received lots of memoranda from them on various social media platforms so we know we have a very fair idea of what the young people of Nigeria are thinking about the future of their country and we will reflect that in our report,” he added.
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