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Professor Mansur Usman Malumfashi
By Akanji Alowolodu, Bauchi
Members of the National Assembly have been challenged to as part of their function in a democratic process, provide the constitutional platform that will accommodate positive changes in the country that will further enhance peaceful coexistence.
The challenge is following series of agitations for breakup of Nigeria by some groups across the country a development that has heated up the polity of the country.
The challenge was thrown at the political class by Professor Mansur Usman Malumfashi, in an interactive session with journalists in Bauchi at the weekend.
Mansur Malumfashi who is Professor of Education in the Faculty of Education, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, expressed concern that almost every zone in the country was experiencing one form of challenge or the other saying, ‘To be very candid, the state of the nation is really alarming and unfortunate”.
He further said that, ‘A group in the South West is calling for Oduduwa republic and others in the South east are also calling for their own Biafra. So you find out that almost every zone of the country is facing one challenge or another in the sense that almost every sector of our national life is faced by one challenge or another”.
‘You find the issue of insecurity, you find the issue of unemployment, you find the issue of inflation, you find the issue of social explosion. What I mean by social explosion is that you find youth restiveness, youth gangsterism and so on and so forth. So really the situation calls for sober reflection of the very foundation of the state, I mean the Nigeria nation”, he added.
Mansur Malumfashi advised that, ‘We really need to sit down and look at things from an objective perspective because right now the foundation of the country is shaky and we are appealing to people in governance to look at the issue more seriously”.
He said that, ‘All the zones in the country look at them, North East, Boko Haram, North West is kidnapping and banditry, North central is farmers-herders crises, south south the militants and the vandalization of pipelines and so on and so forth’
He then called on the National Assembly to have a harmonious relationship with the executive but for the benefit of Nigerians and not to connive and stay behind political power to shortchanged Nigerians.
According to him, ‘The National Assembly or Parliament must work together for the general good of the country. We have had situations where members of the National Assembly would be involved in padding the budget for whatever reasons and at the end of the day whatever is padded is not meant for the people”.
The University Don also said that, “So, a good working relationship would be for the benefit of Nigerians and I think they are not doing badly but we really need to put them on their toes so that they will do more because the National Assembly can do better”.
He said further that, ‘Look at the agitations for restructuring the country, agitations for restructuring whatever that means, So the National Assembly has a great role to play. Constitutionally they are the people required to bring about the changes requested by sections of the country”.
Mansur Malumfashi concluded that, ‘You cannot just jump out and say you want a country or self determination or we want to restructure the country”
