The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL) yesterday hailed President Muhammad Buhari’s Independence Day speech as an inspiration for a better Nigeria.
Chairman Debo Adeniran, told the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) in Lagos that the speech was particularly good for the anti-corruption fight.
He said the President reflected commitment and sincerity of purpose to the fight in the broadcast.
Adeniran pointed out that the way the President sought the support of all stakeholders in the speech showed his resolve to tame the monster of corruption.
He said with the renewed commitment to the fight as shown in the speech, the anti-corruption campaign had bright prospects of succeeding.
“The speech by the President to mark the 57th anniversary of Nigeria inspired great hope for a better country.
“With respect to the anti-corruption fight, the President reflected great sincerity of purpose and commitment in the broadcast.
“And the way he called on the National Assembly and the Judiciary for support, the President was humble and factual enough to show that corruption could not be fought by the Executive alone.
“The President also outlined some of the ways in which he intends to make the fight more effective.
“This is what is expected of a leader and I think all Nigerians should support the president in the campaign,’’ he said.
Adeniran described the appointment of Justice Ayo Salami as chairman of the Judiciary’s anti-corruption committee as a step in the right direction.
He said the retired Appeal Court judge had the pedigree to add bite to the anti-graft war.
Adeniran said there could be mixed feelings about the credibility of other members of the committee but that Justice Salami would provide the right leadership for the committee to succeed.
He described corruption as the greatest obstacle to national development and urged the government to tackle it head-on
Human rights lawyer Jiti Ogunye also hailed the speech, which he described as “a good speech”, but with reservation.
He said it “addressed the socio- economic and political challenges our country is facing, the processes that are ongoing to tackle these challenges, and the progress that has been recorded in surmounting some of these challenges.
The speech addressed democratic development, politics and governance; separatist agitation; the economy, economic growth, diversification of the economy, and our monetary situation; agriculture; the state of insecurity, state of the war against the Boko Haram terrorists, kidnapping and the herdsmen-farmers bloodletting; the fight against corruption and the institutional reforms to stem corrupt practices; et cetera.”
But Ogunye faulted the speech for referring the call for restructuring to the National Assembly
“The President of Nigeria , having sworn to the oath of office and oath of allegiance to preserve the territorial integrity of Nigeria, is not expected to allow the dismemberment of Nigeria. He has a duty to protect the inviolability of Nigeria’ s unity.
“But the President will be acting illegally and unconstitutionally to disallow ‘advocacy’ for dismemberment of Nigeria. Any Nigerian, in exercise of his inalienable and fundamental constitutional right to freedom of expression and the press, and right to freedom of thought , conscience and religion, including the right to hold a political opinion, may advocate secession , separatism, and emergence of three or more countries out of Nigeria. Such an advocacy simpliciter, without hateful and incitement speeches and criminal activities, are permissible under the law. This is not a crime. If such a Nigerian leaves the realm of “advocacy “ and starts moving into the province of ‘actualisation’ , then the borderline between freedom of action and criminality is crossed. The boundary between legality and illegality is breached. Separatist or secessionist treatise will become treason.”
“Before the advent of the 1999 Constitution, Nigerians realised that the military had distorted, contaminated and impaired our economy, society, laws, institutions and morality. Our federalist mode of collective governance, power sharing formula amongst the units of the Federation, and revenue generation and distribution had been dictatorially and inequitably altered. The units of the Federation had been unconsionably atomized, and had become weak, unwieldy, parasitic , and unsustainable. They had become fiefdoms through which political power addicts maintain their stranglehold on the socio-economic life of the people, and an obstacle to growth, development and progress.
Realising that the 1999 Constitution and the civil order it would bring about would not be able to resolve the problem of distorted federation that the military was bequething on us, Nigerians intensified their calls for a sovereign national conference that would lead to the restructuring and refederalisation of Nigeria.
“We cannot but disagree with the President’s sustained dismissal of the idea of a national dialogue outside the framework of our country’s legislature. The character of our legislature and its composition ( a reflection of the distortion of our federal character and manipulation of units of representation) do not make it proper that it should undertake the task of constitutionally reconstructing the Nigerian State.”
Ogunye said the President ought to “put in place modalities for the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference. The President cannot be pushing us to these National Assembly and the Houses of Assembly.”
To the Eastern Consultative Assembly (ECA), the speech “has finally confirmed to all and sundry that he is many years behind global trends and far away from political reality of the Nigerian situation.”
In a statement, ECA Secretary Elliott Ugochukwu Uko said: “This is exactly what happens when a leader surrounds himself only with his kinsmen. They erroneously mistake their sectional worldview as the national interest.”
The group added: ”Buhari has clearly misread the resolve of the younger generation to change their lot in Nigeria through any means necessary. His sectional kitchen cabinet are obviously living in an ancient world where the fear of the inevitable restructuring forced them to take solace inside the cocoon of an outdated unrealistic northern daydream of forcing Nigerians to head to a national assembly which was created by a discredited military constitution.
“Buhari has missed a golden opportunity to constitute an eminent citizens council that would drive the constituent assembly that will save Nigeria. As the agitation rebounds and resurges, time will unveil the price we all will pay for delaying the return of Nigeria back to regional format.”
A pro- democracy and non-governmental organisation-Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), dismissed the broadcast as substantially deficient in statesmanship. It portrays the President as someone with some deep seated grudges and unmitigated hatred for the over 50 million Igbo-speaking people of Southeast, the Ngo said.
HURIWA said portions of the speech, which specifically lampooned the people and leaders of Southeast, amounted to raw hate speech which is capable of igniting longstanding hatred for the Igbo by his largely Northern followers who had earlier issued an unconstitutional quit notice on Igbos in the North to leave the 19 Northern states by today which they grudgingly suspended. This, according to the rights group violates the presidential oath of office as enshrined in the seventh schedule of the constitution.
The pro-transparency group also carpeted the Presidency for failing to use the broadcast to correct the abnormalities and systemic anomalies in the composition of the National Defence Council to specifically address the “imbalances and inherent constitutional breach of the Federal Character Principle which prohibits the dominance of any section of the government by persons from particular ethno-religious affiliations.”
