Resist any coup attempt, Balarabe, Tinubu, NBA VP, Reps tell Nigerians
A National Leader of the All
Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; the Vice-President of the
Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Monday Ubani; and the House of
Representatives, on Monday, told Nigerians to resist any attempt to
remove the current democratic government in the country by force.
Also, a former governor of the old
Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, warned the military personnel
against throwing the nation into turmoil in their bid to seize power.
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur
Buratai, last week warned some Nigerians, who he did not name, to stop
“approaching officers and soldiers for political reasons”, a development
which people believe could be a plot to overthrow the current political
dispensation in the country.
Speaking in Lagos on Monday, Tinubu
warned the military to forget any attempt to lure it to stage a coup,
adding that such attempt would be resisted.
Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos
State, said this at a Special Parliamentary Session organised by the
Lagos State House of Assembly to mark the Lagos at 50 celebrations.
The event was also to mark the second anniversary of the 8th Assembly.
He said, “I will like to sound a note of
caution to us – the democracy that we are now trying to perfect is not
guaranteed to us. We must sweat hard and think wisely if we are to keep
it.
“Just a few days ago, we had a warning
that some people were trying to entice the military out of the barracks.
I say don’t try it. I want to add my voice to that warning. Those who
think they can break the democracy so many of us laboured and for which
too many people sacrificed their lives, they are mistaken.
“Nigeria has come too far for such a
thing to happen. Those people behind such idea will find no fertile
ground to plant their seed in Lagos. We will not buy their bad product;
whatever they want to sell is a bad product and we are going to reject
it.”
Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode
said the state had become a shining example and critical hub of
socio-economic and political development.
“Today, we are celebrating the
contributions of the Lagos State House of Assembly, particularly the 8th
Assembly in the last two years, to the true principles of democratic
governance through passage of bills that advance the principle of
governance and promotion of social welfare of the people within the
ambit of the law,” the governor stated.
We won’t accept return of military to power –Reps
Also, members of the House of
Representatives asked the military to perish the thought of returning to
power in Nigeria, saying coups had no place in the country’s
governance.
The Deputy Speaker of the House, Mr.
Yussuff Lasun, spoke their minds in Abuja on Monday at a public hearing
on 12 bills to amend the Electoral Act, 2010, in a bid to strengthen
democratic processes.
Lasun is also the Chairman, House Special Ad Hoc Committee on Review of the 1999 Constitution.
The Lasun committee has among others,
recommended independent candidacy, financial autonomy for local
governments and state Houses of Assembly to be included in the
constitution ahead of the 2019 general elections.
A new constitution is expected to be in use in 2018.
Lasun said he was in shock to hear that
anybody could be contemplating staging a coup in Nigeria after all the
efforts made in the last 18 years to stabilise democracy in the country.
He added, “It will be difficult for the
military to come back. We have had democracy for 18 years and we worked
so hard to get to where we are today.
“I don’t know why some people are
thinking this way (of coup) going by the comments and things we have
heard in the last two weeks.”
However, the deputy speaker noted that
the House was happy that the military sent its officers to the hearing
on the 12 electoral bills.
Lasun added that the presence of the officers was an indication that the “military is supporting democracy and will protect it.”
The hearing was organised by the House
Committee on Electoral and Political Party Matters with the support of
the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre and the UKaid Nigeria.
Among the 12 bills are ‘A Bill to Amend
the Electoral Act 2010 to Empower National Tribunals and Courts to
Declare Candidates who Scored the Second Highest Votes Winner of
Elections when the Tribunal or Court Finds/Holds that the Winner is
Unqualified Abinitio’; and a ‘A Bill for an Act to Amend the Electoral
Act to Increase the Amounts Permitted as Maximum Election Expenses to be
Incurred by Candidates Standing for Elections and for Related Matters’.
For example, the bill on election
expenses seeks to increase the maximum election expenses to be incurred
by a presidential candidate from N1bn to N5bn.
“It increases the maximum expenses that
can be expended by a governorship candidate from N200m to N1bn,” a
presentation by the Executive Director of PLAC, Mr. Clement Nwankwo,
noted.
The Speaker of the House, Mr. Yakubu
Dogara, told the session that the amendments were proposed to address
problems witnessed during the 2015 polls and other elections held
thereafter.
NBA vice-president, Balarabe warn soldiers against plot
Meanwhile, the Vice-President of the
NBA, Monday Ubani, said any coup attempt would amount to “returning the
country to Egypt,” calling on Nigerians to rise and speak against
military infractions.
Ubani stated, “Every Nigerian with a
sense of responsibility should speak at this auspicious time against any
rumour of attempt to truncate this democracy. We know where we are
coming from and we know what we have suffered as a nation from
undemocratic governments. We know that some of the retardation we have
today is as a result of military rule.
“We know where our country would have
been, but for years of military misrule. Any attempt to return us to
‘Egypt’ will be resisted. We are not ignorant that we have some problems
with our present democracy, but they can be sorted out.
“Hence, these are things we are
correcting in our democracy and the military is never an option, with
its attendant corruption. Therefore, we advise every Nigerian to speak
against this. Powers are taken through electoral box, where mandate is
freely given by the people, and not through the barrel of the gun.”
Also, a former Governor of Kaduna State
and leader of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, Alhaji
Balarabe Musa, called on Nigerians to be vigilant and ensure that the
country was not thrown into political chaos.
He said, “All Nigerians should be careful not to throw the country into another political chaos. We already have enough.
“We want this political dispensation to
last; whatever is the problem, the military should allow the political
class to resolve it.”
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