Okurounmu: Buhari abandoned restructuring when he became president

Femi Okurounmu, a leader of Afenifere, the elite Yoruba socio-political organisation, says Muhammadu Buhari jettisoned the idea of restructuring the country after he became president in 2015.

He said Afenifere supported Buhari in 2007 when he was in the All Nigeria Peoples Party because he promised to restructure the country.

Okurounmu said this in an interview with the Punch.

“A northerner can promise anything if he wants power. In 2007, Afenifere supported President Buhari when he promised restructuring and true federalism in his manifesto when he was in All Nigeria Peoples Party. We made special dresses and campaigned for him in Ibadan. The same President Buhari in 2015 had jettisoned what he promised in 2007. So, that Atiku is supporting restructuring means nothing to me. All they want is power to control the rest of us,” he said in response to a question on Atiku Abubakar’s advocacy for a restructuring of the country.

On the recent rumours of a coup plot, Okurounmu said it was an attempt by the chief of army to test how Nigerians would react if there was an actual coup.

He said the “Hausa-Fulani cabal” was already planning how to retain power in the region if anything happened to the president.

“The Chief of Army staff is only flying a kite to see how people will react if there is a coup. It is the Hausa-Fulani cabal – each time they feel threatened that power might slip from their hands, they think of a coup. All other coups save for the (Kaduna) Nzeogwu and (Gideon) Orkar coups, were all planned by the northerners,” he said.

“They did not want a repeat of what happened during the late President Umaru Yar’Adua when (Goodluck) Jonathan became president. So, they are already preparing to retain the presidency in case anything happens to President Buhari.”