Elder Statesman Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, and Adamu Jauro Garba II, Founder and Group CEO of IPI Group converged on Friday, to brainstorm the impact of the Coronavirus on the nation’s economy and political structure and came up with a dismal verdict that all is not well.

The conference, which held on May 15, 2020 through video conference and titled: ‘The Coronavirus Pandemic, is it Time to Re-Evaluate the Political Structure?’

In a statement signed by the Director of Information, Maazi Tochukwu Ezeoke, the group noted that the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus disease has rapidly permeated and profoundly changed the world, but however noted that the “crisis offers us an opportunity to ask: is our current federal system of governance fit for purpose?

“The conference explored the lessons we could learn from the COVID-19 crisis and whether it presents us with an opportunity to revisit and re-evaluate the structure of government for the benefit of our people.”

Alhaji Tanko Yakasai said he never supported President Muhammadu Buhari all the while he was contesting to be President because he is aware Buhari is incompetent adding that the past five years of the Buhari administration has proven him correct.

Yakasai who made this during the video conference organized by the Governance index on Friday attended by close to 100 participants across the globe said President Buhari is yet to prove him wrong on how he (the President) is coordinating the affairs of the country.

“I have never supported Buhari, I have been against him because I felt he was not competent to handle the job, and I have been proven right.”

He said when President Buhari was elected, he was hoping that he will be able to at least fix the power sector and this is his 5th year in office and nothing has been done to address the issue of electricity in the country.

“When President Buhari was elected, I was hoping at least we will get stable power all over the country, this is his fifth years, has only two more active years, the last one year will be for election.

“I don’t know what are his plans are; when will Kano get electricity to restore its industrial might so that every man in Kano will be gainfully employed as a result of provision in Kano, likewise in Enugu, Lagos, etc?

“Those are the key issues from the time when Buhari was elected till date; it is enough to have regional electricity supply, so that small and medium scales industries will pick up, and people will get job and get money to feed their families.”

In his contribution, former All Progressive Congress (APC), presidential aspirant, Adamu Jauro Garba II, lamented that Nigeria’s federal structure is not working for the North nor is it working for the country and called for the decentralization of police force, education and health sector in the country.

Adamu, founder and Group CEO of IPI Group, who joined the elder statesman Alhaji Yakasai to brainstorm over the impact of the Coronavirus on the nation’s economy, said that the current structure is not working for anybody in the country especially for the northern part of the country adding that the very few people benefit from the current system in the country at the moment because the country is running a highly centralised system.

He said that infrastructures that should enable productivity at the states level are not in place as the every state is looking up to the center for the ‘national cake’.

He said: “The system is not working for everybody, the North is greatly impoverished. We are more disadvantaged than the South West, South East and South-South of this country, you may not have political distribution, but when it comes to the distribution of right policy that enable people to function at full capacity, we are the most disadvantaged.

“The issue of restructuring has been highly politicised, we should be reorganising strategically, silent by decentralised Security first, and we can then begin to have some level of resource control not complete resources control.”

Speaking about decentralisation of security, he said the decision of the state governors to create vigilante groups in their various states is an opportunity to come up with a law that will decentralise the police.

He however said that the Police should not be allowed to be under the control of Governors, but should be under the Federal Judicial System.

According to him, we can use this opportunity for Police to operate at the state level under the Commissioner of Police, meanwhile this policing system will not be accountable to Governors, but to a Federal Judicial system.

The conference held on May 15, 2020 through video conference was titled, “The Coronavirus pandemic, is it time to re-evaluate the political structure?”