Ike Ekeweremadu, deputy president
of the senate, says the country’s democracy is receding and it is not unlikely
for the military to take over.
Ekeweremadu said this on
Wednesday while contributing to a debate on a motion sponsored by Ahmed Ogembe,
senator representing Kogi central.
Ogembe had alleged that Bello
sponsored thugs disrupted an empowerment programme he organised for his
constituents.
But the deputy senate president
said such incident shows that efforts must be made to protect the country’s
democracy.
He cited different instances
where federal lawmakers have been harassed, warning that democracy must not be
turned into a joke.
Ekeweremadu also told the
governor of Kogi state that “the road he is travelling will not lead him
anywhere”.
“You will recall that sometime
last year when they wanted to recall Dino I advised the governor that they are
wasting the resources of that state, that it is mission impossible,”
Ekeweremadu said.
“They took three pages in the
newspaper abusing me. Are we still hearing the recall today? Money has been
wasted. Money that has been used to pay salaries of people in Kogi state was
used to mobilise people to recall senator Dino yet those people have not been
paid and Dino is still here.
“So today I am advising the
governor again, that road he is travelling will not lead him to anywhere.
Ultimately, these people he is seeing here will be back here and he will leave
office.
“If he doesn’t stop, there is no
how he will come back in 2019, never, no he will not. God will show him that he
is a God of justice and this is a message to all those people who have caused
all kinds of problem in Nigeria at different level. The problem in Nigeria is
that our democracy is receding. Who says army cannot take over, let us not joke
with our democracy that is the issue.
“The house of a senator was
destroyed in Kaduna state, we are talking about Kwankwaso who was stopped from
going to his state where he ruled for eight years. In Kaduna, Shehu Sani cannot
organise a meeting and we are about a democracy? The international community
needs to know this because they helped us install democracy.”
On his part, Senate President
Bukola Saraki said Nigeria’s democracy ought to be a good example to other
countries.
“This is not what democracy is
all about. For the role we play in the comity of nations we need to be good
examples to other parts of the world,” Saraki said.
“These kind of actions are
unacceptable, it starts with one state – many of us have been privileged to be
governors and we are almost 20 years in democracy, this is not the democracy
that we should be talking about. We saw the case in Kaduna state, how a
governor would go and bulldoze a house, in Nigeria? At this time and we are all
still keeping quiet. These are things we must condemn totally.”
Thereafter, the senate set up an
ad hoc committee to investigate the incident.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com