Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) Chairman Rotimi Amaechi is worried about the 2015 general elections.
Nigeria needs to “be careful” and the people should be ready to
defend democracy for there to be free and fair elections in 2015, the
Rivers State governor said.
Amaechi urged the Judiciary to be prepared to rescue the country from
disputes that would result from unfair elections, as it had done in the
recent past. He alluded to the NGF election, which polarised the forum.
“Let us put it on record that the way things are going, we should be
careful 2015 does not end in this manner, where people will win
democratic election and those in power will not accept the result of a
free and fair election,” Amaechi said, adding:
“My lords, be prepared because we shall soon be coming to your court.
We must defend democracy. We must defend Nigeria because we don’t have
any other country.
“My Lords we must be prepared. As you did in 2007. We must be prepared.
“We have started again with tyranny and oppression. We must be
prepared as a people to defend our rights. We must be prepared as a
people to hold government accountable. We must be prepared to demand for
accountability.”
Amaechi spoke in Abuja at a symposium on “Review of the 1999
Constitution and its impact on the much-needed judicial reforms”,
organised by a group, the Rule of Law Foundation.
At the symposium were two former Chief Justices of Nigeria, Mohammadu
Uwais and Dahiru Musdapher, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu,
Justice Sylvester Nguta, former Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) President
Joseph Daudu and Ekiti State Attorney General Wale Fapohunda.
Amaechi denied the claim by Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang that
the NGF election was not transparent and that he (Jang) never
participated.
He said Jang voted, noting that the Plateau governor was among the first set of voters.
The Rivers State governor described the Jang faction of the forum as another faction of the PDP forum.
The governor, who faulted the position taken by the NBA on the
dispute, described those supporting the Jang faction as “undemocratic”.
He said all the governors at the NGF meeting where he was elected as
chairman agreed to participate in the election.
Said Amaechi: “NBA cannot afford to lose its voice. NBA has lost its
voice. For NBA to see a free and fair election, where 35 governors that
govern 35 states and make decisions for hundreds of million of people
and for NBA to say ‘if you can not organise yourselves dissolve’. Then
you have lost your voice.
“I want to say it and I want to be put on record, anyone who supports the Jang faction is undemocratic.
“We chose who should be the Returning Officer. We appointed our
Director General to be the returning officer for the election. And we
voted. Everybody voted, including Jang.
“In fact, Jang was among the first persons to vote. And when I won,
they were there. We were to commence voting for the chairmanship when my
brother and colleague from Akwa Ibom got up and said ‘there is a
document I had where 19 governors had signed’. And Jang said Northern
Governors Forum supported him, but the same northern governors voted.
They should have, therefore, voted for him. “He said PDP governors
supported him at a meeting before the election, so they should have
voted for him.
“What Jang is leading is another faction of PDP Governors Forum and not the NGF, because there are no two governors forum
“Therefore, anyone – NBA or government that supports Jang’s faction is undemocratic.”
On the reported friction between him and his state’s Commissioner of
Police, Mbu… Amaechi said: “ We must resist a situation where public
officers without statutory authority would call the Inspector General of
Police to change commissioner of police; we must resist it.”
Ekweremadu, the Chairman, Senate Committee on the Review of the
Constitution, said the review would not be submitted to referendum.
He noted that the Constitution specified how it should be amended and that it did not include referendum.
Ekweremadu stressed the need for urgent reform of the judiciary.
He said: “With a morally upright and well-reformed judiciary that
applies the letters of the law fairly and timely, the systems
manipulation, overheating of our polity, reign of impunity in high and
low places, the blatant disrespect for the law, and the rape of public
treasury would abate considerably.”
He said the proposal for judicial reform submitted by former CJN Musdapher was being considered.
Ekweremade said the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999
Constitution had presented a Bill and Report on proposed amendments to
the Senate for consideration.
The Deputy Senate President gave snippets of some of the
recommendations of the committee to include: separation of the office of
the Attorney General (AG) of the Federation from that of the Minister
of Justice; Seven years tenure for Attorney General; financial autonomy
for the AG as funds for the office will be made from the Consolidated
Revenue Fund; Conferment of powers on the AG to investigate certain
crimes and removal of the CJN and other serving judicial officers as
members of the Federal Judicial Service Commission.
He observed that it was not all the challenges facing the judiciary
the require constitutional amendment but rather a change in mentality
and attitudes.
“It is not for lack of laws that some anti-corruption and other
serious criminal cases involving the high and mighty have remained
stagnant.”
Daudu, who is also the coordinator of the Rule of Law Development
Foundation, said the level of impunity in the country was worrisome.
Justice Musdapher, in a keynote address, said there was no denying
the fact that the judciairy had problems and needed to be reformed.
The former CJN argued that the breakdown of law and order in the
Nothereast might not be unconnected with the fact that people had lost
faith in the nation’s laws and the justice delivery system.
He observed that there was a disconnect between the people and the justice system.
Justice Musdapher suggested that senior lawyers be appointed as
judges so as to address the declining capacity in the judiciary. He
advised that appointment of judges be made more transparent so that
members of the public could appraise and make comments.
Justice Musdapher said there was an urgent need to pass the bill for
amendment of certain provisions of the constitution that affect the
judiciary.
Justice Musdapher and Ekweremadu praised the Chief Justice of
Nigeria, Justice Aloma Mukhtar, for her efforts at reforming the
judiciary.
Source: The Nation
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