Former Senate Minority Leader, and the senator representing Abia South Senatorial District, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, has said that it was difficult for the National Assembly to confront President Bola Tinubu on constitutional infractions because Nigeria’s democracy has now been mixed with tradition.
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He alleged that the President has serially violated the Constitution, with a traditional ruler’s impunity, and has gotten away with it. In an exclusive interview with Sunday Telegraph, the Senator also frowned at the life sentence handed down on Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB) in a country where governors, local government chairmen and top government officials openly parley with killer bandits and kidnappers.
Abaribe said as if he saw it coming, shortly after Tinubu’s election, he advised him to reflect the national character principle in the composition of his government. But the President has serially violated this Section 14 of the Constitution since assumption of office.
He said: “Section 14 of the Constitution, I think it’s 14:3, says: ‘The composition of the government of the federation, or any of its agencies, and the conduct of the affairs, shall be carried out in such a manner, as to reflect the Federal Character of Nigeria, and the need to promote national unity and to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states, or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups, in that government, or in any of its agencies.’
“It was like I was predicting the future. I’m telling you that this was just one week after the presidential election. Now, Mr. President was watching me, and everybody else was, and when we finished, we all walked away. We thanked Mr. President, and that was that. But where are we today? “This Section 14.3, which is a constitutional mandate, has been breached, and continues to be breached by the government of the day.
And whenever I remember what I said that time, that day, and what is going on now, I always reflect to myself, did I envisage that the government is going to be run in this manner? Because if you look at Section 14.3, and look at the pattern, of appointments, and every thing in this country today, what do you see?
You will see a very clear breach of the constitution. And the government is going on as if the Constitution is not there, and that this is, I mean, that it didn’t swear an oath to obey this constitution.” Asked why the National Assembly had not moved against this, Abaribe said: “My duty is to point it out. The duty of the Parliament is to agree that this has been happening…One of the problems I think that the Nigerian democracy has is the juxtaposition of the traditional mores and modern democracy.
So, in the traditional mores, you have a Kabiyesi syndrome in the West, a Rankadede syndrome in the North, and what is it they call it in Igbo land now? Onyeishi Wu Onyeishi syndrome. “So, this is actually the dilemma of the practice of democracy in Nigeria; where dissent is seen no longer as a mere act of dissent but an act of rebellion.
Dissent happens more in the East because we come from a tradition of communal living and not one single man determining the fate of everyone. And because of that, there’s always this feeling by everybody that the Igbo don’t work with each other.”
On the conviction of Kanu he said: “It’s not just the sentencing and all that, that is the real issue. The real issue, really, is that it simply deepens the resentment of people who continue to see a stark contrast in the treatment of citizens of this country.
When they see a situation where local government chairmen, governors and other government officials are meeting with bandits that have actually murdered and killed and burnt houses and done everything, and those bandits come and parley with them in the guise of a non-kinetic approach.
Then when you juxtapose it with this immediate life sentence, it always raises the issue.”
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