The Permanent Representative of Centre for Convention on Democratic Integrity (CCDI) to the United Nations, Mr. Olufemi Aduwo, has asked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to call the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike to order before he plunges Rivers State into a needless political crisis and by extension cause unnecessary political unrest in the entire South-South region.
Aduwo ,who also doubles as the Chairman of World Bank-Civil Society Policy Forum African Countries Group (CSPF-ACG), while delivering his remarks in his capacity as the representative of the Civil Society at the Technical Summit of Human Rights Council 56th session held in Geneva on Monday 27th of May 2024, declared that the trouble with some self acclaimed leaders such as Wike was that a "high amount of ignorance and nonsensical claim is being traded as a common sense." According to him, "suffice to say that morality has gone to the dogs and the order of the day is money. It is in that context that we would understand why some deadwood politicians in Rivers State are supporting Wike's undemocratic antics in the State." He averred .
He stated further that "Nigerian democracy is still fragile and that it could not accommodate unnecessary political firmament. The likes of Wike must note that "people fought for this democracy with their blood and that discerning Nigerians should not allow political opportunists and charlatans to derail the process. Governor Fubara has the mandate of his people to serve them as the governor and not Wike. The same system brought Wike into power as the governor of the state for eight years and he was not teleguided or turned into a robot by the power that brought him into office."
While commenting on the defection of some state lawmakers from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State, Olufemi Aduwo declared that the twenty-five (25) lawmakers that defected from the party have lost their seats. According to him, "they have lost their rights to remain members of Rivers State House of Assembly. That is the position of the law. The Supreme Court had made it clear that you cannot decamp and then remain a member of a legislative house in Nigeria unless you can show that there is division in your party. Today, the PDP is one. I thought Wike, being a lawyer, should advise these miscreants parading themselves as honourable members."
In another development, in assessing President Bola Tinubu's one year in the office. Olufemi
Aduwo opined at the World Bank & IMF Boards of Governors' Meetings when the Civil Society
Forum met with World Bank, President Ajay Banga at Washington DC last month that "some Tinubu's economic policies are in right direction. Unfortunately, the full impact has not been felt due to Nigerian factors." According to him, "there are some things we cannot do until we think about them; being a good citizen is probably something that we cannot think about until we do it. For Nigeria to move forward in geometric proportion, we must curb corruption and fraudulent practices in Nigeria which is tantamount to rebuilding a better Nigeria."
While elucidating further on the state of corruption in the country, Olufemi Aduwo observed that "many Nigerians considered corruption to be limited to the Federal government level. However, corruption is huge at private sector and state government levels than what obtains at the Federal level." He further observed that "economic recovery and development on a sustainable basis is highly unlikely unless and until, we as a people, change our attitudes. It calls for achieving a proactive maintenance of law and order which is the means to halt and reverse the process of systemic collapse."
"It requires putting in place the structure of good governance and ethical economic principles and make imperative action aimed at cleansing the Nigerian Augean stables, which are stinking, filthy, corrupt and corrupted. These are minimum conditions required to sanitise and put the Nigerian polity and economy back on the path of effective state of recovery whose overarching objective is the pursuit of the common good."
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While going philosophical in his postulation, Olufemi Aduwo observed that "Human rights can only be assured among a virtuous people. The country cannot develop as rapidly as the people want unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters." (Edmund Burke cited in Levin, 114). He concluded that "democracy will only secure liberty and development, when the leaders are men of virtue, because without virtue, democracy will remain chimerical idea."
