Buhari Shouldn’t Take Nigeria Back To Military Era – Fasehun

Dr. Frederick Fasehun is the founder of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) and National Chairman of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). He speaks, in this interview, on the recent arrest of some judges by the Department of States Services (DSS) and the economic recession in the country, among other issues. WALE ELEGBEDE reports

President Buhari recently constituted a 24-man committee on Constitution and Electoral Reforms headed by former Senate President Ken Nnamani. Do you think that is what we need to address the defects in our constitution?

That is what we need now because these national conferences are not achieving the objectives of setting them up. We went to some national conferences and the reports of the conferences are gathering dust on the shelves and nobody is paying any attention to the reports. Unfortunately, the country is getting more and more divided and peace is eluding us.

That means the national conferences and the constitutional conferences we agitated for have not achieved their objectives because their sole objective is to unify the nation but the big question to ask is: Is the country united?

Are you worried about the state of the economy like some other Nigerians?

I’m worried as well but I have said it before that President Muhammadu Buhari constituted a ‘mosquito economic team’ by leaving out people like Profs Charles Soludo and Pat Utomi, Okonjo-Iweala and some other renowned economists. Why would you ignore these eminent Nigerians who are available and instead go for a ‘mosquito economic team’ at this critical time of our nation? Revamping the economy should be non-partisan and everyone, who can do it should be invited to come o n board.

Are you saying that Buhari should rejig his economic team?

Buhari’s current cabinet makeup is an insult to Nigerian economic wizards at home and in the Diaspora. This weakness became apparent with the mishandling of the 2016 budget.

There is an urgent need for complete overhauling of the government’s economic team. This is no time to play politics with the national economy, which is the very lifeblood of our corporate existence. Buhari needs a super-team of economists to guide him through the present storm of economic problems. We must not wait until things break down like it h a p – p e n e d i n Greece. All these give cause for concern.

Do you support rolling the tanks out against the militants bombing oil facilities in the Niger Delta?

How can we do that? The militants are Nigerian citizens and the government cannot set the military after its own citizens, it is not done. Let us use persuasion, dialogue and civil engagement to settle crisis especially internal ones. I don’t think Niger Delta militants should be bombarded.

What is your take on the raid on the homes of some judges’ by the Department of State Services (DSS)? How does the DSS explain that in order to arrest a Judge, it resorted to breaking down doors and windows? And this is happening in a democracy that is supposed to be the model for Africa and the Third World. I condemn this Gestapo-style invasion of the private homes of Nigerian judges.

The invasion is invidious, infantile, illegal and unconstitutional; it smirks of a scripted and premeditated operation aimed specifically at intimidating the judiciary and giving judicial officers a bad name in order to devalue their reputation. Moreover, the invasion represents an unjust clampdown on the Judiciary, a clear violation of the rule of law, due process and commonsense, and it should never happen again.

Since the Director-General of the DSS, Mr. Lawal Daura, was appointed in July last year, the DSS has gradually turned itself into a terror organisation. It is a relapse to the ignoble days of the National Security Organisation (NSO) under General Buhari. This unprecedented assault on the homes and families of the judicial officers should be the last straw. The DSS has failed in its statutory duty, which is to secure the country against security threats.

And at a time when the insurgencies, shootings, bombings and kidnappings ravaging Nigeria are being blamed on the failure of intelligence, it is unbelievable that the DSS has the luxury of ease to break into peoples’ homes and peddle falsehood and propaganda against its victims.

Are you saying that it was an assault on the judiciary?

In a democracy, the judiciary is the most stable arm of government for obvious reasons. While the two other arms of the government, the legislature and executive, have a ceiling on their tenure, the judiciary is careerdriven and enjoys tenure longevity.

Those serving in the Judiciary are apolitical and the judiciary is the last hope of the common man. This is why it is disheartening, heartrending and troubling that the Judiciary has been placed under this brazen assault and it forebodes danger for the nation’s democracy. Today, it is rather unfortunate that President Buhari represents the worst threat on our nation’s democracy.

https://newtelegraphonline.com/buhari-shouldnt-take-nigeria-back-military-era-fasehun/

Everything is wrong with this APC government it need cleansing and overhaul of all the executive appointments made by president Buhari .

Dem go talk,you fine or you no fine,dem go talk, you eat or you no eat dem go talk,wetin I go do my people o wey dem no go talk?