Prof. Ango Abdullahi, the Convener of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), has concluded that Nigeria has failed its people in all indices.
Speaking in Abuja during a book launch, titled: “Court and Politics”, authored by Dr Umar Ardo , the former Vice-Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, posited that Nigerians must go back to the drawing board and rework the country since its systems have failed to work.
He said: “Looking at present reality in the country, everyone, both the leaders and the led have failed the country.
“This event, to me is an opportunity for us to talk to ourselves about our collective failure as a country.”
Abdullah bemoaned the sorry state of things in the country, saying: “Today, we’ve just had power failure now, for 64 years we are having 4,000 megawatts, what a shame. 4000 megawatts of electricity is not enough for one big house in another country.
“For those of us who from time to time go to Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage and so on, I should remind you that the Masjid al-Haram, the Makkah mosque uses 18,000 megawatts of electricity daily.
“Here in Nigeria that is a country with over 220 million of people we are generating 4,000 megawatts of electricity after 64 years of independence. Something is wrong with everybody, everyone. Everyone is guilty.”
The elder statesman recalled that Nigeria practiced the parliamentary system of government from 1960 to 1966 before it opted for the presidential system of government.
He reasoned that the presidential system was too expensive for the country, because of the huge financial resources involved, adding: “The time has come for us to really go back to the drawing board so that all of us can be safe.”
