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2023: CAN reiterates restructuring at meeting with Atiku, Okowa

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The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has reiterated the importance of restructuring the polity ahead of the 2023 elections.

This was made known on Tuesday by the CAN President, Archbishop Daniel Okoh, during a meeting with the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and his running mate, Atiku Abubakar and Ifeanyi Okowa, respectively.

The meeting took place at the CAN headquarters in Abuja, with Archbishop Okoh noting that the Charter for Future Nigeria makes genuine recommendations for resolving Nigeria’s recurrent crises that border on justice and fairness, equality of all ethnic and religious groups, equal access to basic economic and social rights, political freedom and an egalitarian and just social order.

Okoh further noted that the document starts with a diagnostic of Nigeria’s issue and pinpoints the root of it in an illogical institutional and constitutional framework that governs Nigerian governance and social and economic relations.

READ ALSO:2023: CAN sheds light on meeting with Tinubu

In his submission, Atiku vowed to restructure the country if he gets elected. According to him, states will be made to take ownership of mineral resources in their domains and then pay taxes to the Federal Government.

He said: “The fundamental fault lines we have seen in the last seven years only occurred because you wanted a change in 2015 and elected a change you are seeing now. It is your responsibility, if you want this CAN charter to be implemented, the only route is to have another change.”

Atiku pointed out that the “Charter for Future Nigeria” that CAN submitted to him is consistent with the policies he promoted in the book that he authored while serving as vice president and when he had a fundamental difference with the then-president Olusegun Obasanjo.

Atiku, who promised to tackle the problem of insecurity by increasing the number of policemen in the country, said he is going to institute a constitutional reform, to provide for state police.

“You can’t have state police unless there is a constitutional amendment so that you can have different levels of police like state police, local government police and city police to deal with the security challenges we are having.

“I am a supporter of removing the provision of indigeneship in our Constitution. Once you reside in any part of this country and you pay your taxes, you should be entitled to everything the location offers.”

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