President Buhari & Atiku Abubakar. |
The attention of the Atiku Presidential Campaign
Office
has been drawn to the statement by the Presidency banning 50 unnamed Nigerians
from travelling out of the country, purportedly on the strength
of Executive Order 6. Their crime being that they are suspected of having
property overseas and are involved in tax dodging or other alleged financial
infractions.
We
must be unequivocal in saying that we abhor any act of criminality, financially
or otherwise, but the rule of law must be our guide at all times or society
will descend to anarchy. Thus, we find it most undemocratic that in a nation
governed by the rule of law, a President who swore an oath to abide by the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, does this.
If
past events are to be the judge, these 50 individuals will conveniently be
critics and opponents of the Buhari administration. This is nothing short of
intimidation ahead of the 2019 elections. This is what the Buhari
administration did in Osun where they froze the accounts of the Adeleke family
and then illegally and clandestinely paid ₦16.7 billion to the Osun state
government to facilitate daylight electoral robbery.
To
show how clueless this administration is, it included late former Chief Judge
of Enugu State, Justice Innocent Umezulike as number 30 on its travel ban list,
the question Nigerians should ask is this: can an administration that is unable
to distinguish between the living and the dead bring life to Nigeria's economy?
The
Nigerian Constitution guarantees every Nigerian citizen freedom of movement and
freedom of association. This Constitutional right cannot be taken away except
by a court order.
If
the Buhari administration wants to curtail the rights of Nigerians, then they
must go to court and obtain a court order. Anything short of this is
unconstitutional and extrajudicial.
This
sudden dictatorial act brings to mind President Buhari’s comments for which he
was condemned by the international community and by the generality of
Nigerians.
While
delivering an address at the annual general conference of the Nigerian Bar
Association on August 26, 2018, President Buhari has said “where national
security and public interest are threatened or there is a likelihood of their
being threatened, the individual rights of those allegedly responsible must
take second place, in favour of the greater good of society.”
That
was not only a faulty interpretation of the constitution, the statement also
betrays the dictatorial and authoritarian mindset of President Buhari because
only he gets to decide who and what threatens national security.
It
is a throwback to Buhari’s evil Decree Number Two of 1984 which criminalized
truth telling if it did not please Buhari, proving that dictators can grow old,
but they can’t grow into democrats.
Under
the Buhari administration, Nigeria has witnessed an unprecedented capital
flight out of the nation to the extent that we are not even listed amongst the
top ten recipients of Foreign Direct Investment in Africa in the latest ranking
by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. It is salient to
note that we were number one under the last Peoples Democratic Party
administration.
Funny
enough, the Buhari administration were unable to stop Abdulrasheed Maina, their
financier, from leaving the country after he was illegally brought back by them
and reinstated to the federal service with double promotion.
It
is precisely this type of draconian orders that have chased investors away from
Nigeria and it is precisely why Nigerians will chase this recession friendly
government away from power on February 16, 2019, so we can begin the job of
Getting Nigeria Working Again.
0 Comments
DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions expressed on this platform as comments were freely made by each person under his or her own volition or responsibility and were neither suggested nor dictated by the owners of Precious Eze's Blog or any of their contracted staff. So we take no liability whatsoever for such comments.
Please take note!