The former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bode George, says it is unfair to attribute all the country’s challenges to President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

Mr George said this during his address to the nation, “My Thoughts on The State of Our Country in the Last 25 Years: A Time to Chart a New Direction,” on Thursday in Lagos.

The PDP chieftain said an honest assessment of the present administration’s performance could only be done after the president had spent some more time in office.

Mr George, a PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) member, said it was wrong to look at the present situation through the prism of politics, adding that the challenges confronting the country were far beyond the confines of partisan politics.

“This is not the time for political actors to be subjective in their thinking and actions because the challenges before us are far beyond the confines of partisan politics.

“They (politicians) are now blaming the Bola Tinubu administration, which has spent about one year in office. Government administration is not a hundred-meter dash race.

“We will advise and condemn so that in a year, we can assess the methodology and performance of the government. Pitiably, some Nigerians have resorted to a blame game,” he said.

However, he urged Mr Tinubu to also tell Nigerians the true situation in the country.

Mr George said: “This is not the time to play party or regional politics. Nigerians have suffered enough, and they want fast results.

“This is the time for Tinubu to rejig his economic team. There are many Nigerians – from the North to the South – who can offer him economic advice to turn this country around,” he said.

He said that 25 years after the military returned to the barracks, the country had not fared well.

The PDP chieftain said Nigeria could only regain its rightful place in the comity of nations through the collective determination of leaders and followers.

He said successive leaders had failed to grapple with the challenges of nation-building and that the country was currently facing an existential crisis.

“The excessive centrality of political power holds everyone down to an unhealthy indolence, strips the states of individual growth and development, disallows free-willing local initiatives, strangles fairness and equity in the larger Nigerian union, inflames tension and fissiparous tendencies,” he said.

He said the nation needed to urgently address “our so-called federalism,” which can be described as a ‘unitary or despotic federalism’.

Mr George said the 1999 constitution was not working and should jettisoned.

Calling for state police and devolution of power to federating units, Mr George said the government must prioritise the fight against epileptic power supply and hunger.

(NAN)