After six months, Dariye,
others must return to power- Masari
By KENNY ASHAKA, Kaduna
Wednesday,June 30, 2004
The voice of the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari may not be manly. He looks harmless,
calm and sometimes appears a shy personality. But behind this
facade of harmlessness is a bluntness that is only seen in
courageous politicians.
In fact, the Katsina State born speaker cannot be tamed. Above
all, he is unpredictable.
Recently, while the speaker fielded questions from newsmen
in Kaduna, he had an opportunity to display the sterner stuff
he is made of, casting aspersions on most governors.
Governors and dictatorship charge
If you look at the journey so far since 1999 to date, who
is more democratic; the president or the governor? We in the
National Assembly are busy. We disagreed with him. At the
end of the month, we still collect our salaries and sleep
in our houses despite the tough time the National Assembly
gives the president. If State Houses of Assembly are tough
with state governors, do you think the State Houses of Assembly
will survive? In assessing democracy, you do it right from
local government to the national level".
Plateau crisis and emergency rule
The constitution gives certain reasons and guidelines on what
to do where there is a breakdown of law and order. The fact
is that anybody in his right mind will know that the government
and the leadership of Plateau State failed because you can
never govern with incessant killings.
The action was taken to safeguard Nigeria because Plateau
by its cosmopolitan nature, is housing all Nigerians. So,
if there is an attack against people from a particular section
of the country, when they run home and start revealing what
happened, the next thing is that there will be a reaction
against people from that area. In the process even people
who are not from that area may be affected. "There will
be reprisal attacks. Before you know it, the chain of reprisal
killings, destruction of property would have engulfed the
nation, which nobody would have been able to control. We wouldn’t
have what we call Nigeria today.
In Plateau, there is a total failure. You need to go there
and see. Foreign journalists were there; they took pictures
and they were relayed CNN and British Broadcasting Corporation
(BBC). They went as far as ascertaining the number of killings
in the mass grave. These are facts "What is the government
and leadership responsible for?". It is protection of
life and property, maintenance of peace, law and order should
be priority of governors. "
"What we have seen in Plateau and other states, has shown
that if there are state police may be they would have gone
from house to house, killing people."
Religion was brought in to elicit sympathy and get support
for others".
"If we had not done what we did, that would have been
the end of this country.
Suspension of governor and house of assembly
When you declare a state of emergency, it connotes the failure
of the existing establishment against the fundamental issue
on the ground. When you declare a state of emergency, it means
you need better house to address the issue in that particular
area in a particular state, which means the governor and the
State House of Assembly have failed to address the issue.
"It was the failure on the part of the leadership to
address the crisis in Plateau that made the declaration of
state of emergency possible. "What is the purpose of
the state of emergency if the leadership of the state continues
to be there?"
After six months, the governor and other democratic institutions
must return to power.
PDP and anybody for that matter cannot order fresh elections
in any part of the country once elections were conducted and
announced except at an election tribunal.
Presidency in 2007
If you are to go by zonal structure, you should have said
south - south, but not North Central, North East or
North West. South East is one out of six zones. But I don’t
know what the party will do.
Fuel subsidy
Under the existing law, which was passed by the National Assembly,
with regards to the 2004 Appropriation, the Federal Government
has no money directly to give subsidy until there is a supplementary
appropriation. If you could remember, part of the closing
speech of the budget was that the Federal Government has no
right to charge a single kobo over N25 dollars per barrel;
so the excess is there, but the government cannot take it
unless through supplementary budget. Based on that, the government
cannot now directly have money to even say they are subsidizing.
It is the duty of the PPPRA to regulate, particularly in periods,
like we have now." "We need to be more scientific
in how we approach the issue of subsidy. |
