
An
All Progressives Congress, APC, Lawmaker, Senator Dino Melaye, on
Wednesday, has lamented that his party, the APC, has done more harm than
good to Nigerians.
The
Lawmaker, made this disclosure, while giving his remarks at the 2017
Nigeria Democracy Day Lecture, organised by the Save Democracy Group
Africa, in Abuja.
Melaye
lamented the appointment into government, of people without the
requisite experience, noting that the government is largely to blame for
some of the ills recorded in the first two years of President Muhammadu
Buhari’s administration.
“Democracy
is defined as a government of the people, by the people, and for the
people, but what we had in the time of Jonathan was greedocracy, which
is the government of the greedy, by the greedy, and for the greedy.
Today, we have criminocracy, a government of the criminals, by the
criminals, and for the criminals.
“Wrong
appointments led to the emergence of the former (suspended) Secretary
to the Government of the Federation, SGF, who became a grass cutter”, he
said, adding that: “When you appoint a man who has no experience in
civil administration as SGF, he is bound to misbehave.”
Melaye
urged Nigerians to note that a legitimate clash of interest exists
between the Legislature and the Executive arm, and as such, the National
Assembly should be allowed the liberty to carry on with its statutory
duty without hindrance.
“There
is nowhere an Auditor and the man who runs an organisation are friends.
There’s something wrong when the two are seen taking tea together”, he
argued.
He
further noted that, those calling for the restructuring of the Nigerian
State are right, adding that: “We must discuss and agree to be
Nigerians. We have not discussed, and we have not agreed.”
The
only way, in the opinion of the Lawmaker to curtail agitation for
secession, is for Nigerians to trust their leaders, saying for this
happen, leaders must lead by examples.
“Generators
should only been used at emergency centres like hospitals and
mortuaries, so that when there is no light in Karmo (a suburb of Abuja),
there will be no light also at the Villa”, he said.
Melaye,
further advocated for the removal of the immunity clause from the
nation’s Constitution, while urging the government to take care of
hunger and unemployment, to put a stop to agitation for the break-up of
the nation by some marginalized ethnic nationalities.
Earlier
in his keynote address titled, “Sustainable Democracy and the National
Question”, Barrister Mike Ozekhome, SAN, urged leaders not to take the
unity of the country for granted, even as he argued that agitation for
secession is a right recognised by International Law and the United
Nations.
He
said: “To sustain democracy, we must not take Nigeria’s unity for
granted. Let us go back to fiscal federalism, through devolution of
power to the federating units.”
Present
at the Lecture were: Senator Babafemi Ojudu, who represented the Acting
President, Yemi Osinbajo, Senator Femi Kila, Chief Chukwuemeka Eziefe
(ex-Anambra State Governor), Muhammed Abba Gana (former Minister,
Federal Capital Territory), and a former Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Hon. Ghali Umar Na’aba, among others.
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