LAGOS—HUMAN Rights Activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria(SAN), Chief Gani Fawehinmi yesterday said the present administration had failed in its primary responsibility of providing security and welfare for its citizenry, and asked members of the National Assembly to address the issue before it gets out of hand.
Chief Fawehinmi who stated this while reacting on the on- going strike action to protest the increase in petroleum products, expressed disappointment that the impact of democracy was not being felt by most Nigerians, as they had lost hope in the present administration.
In an exclusive interview with Vanguard , Chief Fawehinmi accused Present Olusegun Obasanjo of being “obstinate as he does not care about the sufferings of the Nigeria people contrary to the oat he took to uphold and give effect to the constitution of Nigeria. Section 14 sub section 2b of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1979, provides that the security and the welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government .
"But under Obasanjo , the quality of life of the people has plummeted to an abysmal level. He does not care for their welfare. When you look at the poverty in the country, one would have expected the government to use the excess money that it has derived from the sale of crude oil during the last six months to cushion the poverty he has inflicted on the populace through his programme.
“This government has made nothing less than N850 billion naira excess profit as a result of the crisis in Iraq that has affected the supply of oil to the world market. But instead of planing this money to the economy to aid the Nigeria masses and to cushion their sufferings, Obasanjo is asking them to pay more for the consumption of petroleum product in the country.
"He has increased petroleum products five times since he came to power. That is unfair to Nigeria people and when you look at the totality of the Nigeria programme which he christened National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy , you will know that every aspect of the proogramme was designed to help the rich and to continue to improvised the masses of the people to the extent that the masses of the people have now re-christened his Economy Programme to mean National Economic Enslavement and Dehumanisation Strategy. Obasanjo should leave because he has failed Nigerians. Nigerians have loss total confidence in him” he said.
Throwing his weight behind the four -day stay at home warning strike, chief Fawehinmi said it would linger on if nothing was done to address the hike in petroleum products. He however, declared the first day of the strike as peaceful ,declaring that legal procedures would be taken against any policeman that might shoot or manhandle any Nigerian in the course of the protest.
“We chose not to go to the street to protest so as to demobilise the Police. So far, we have not heard of anyone hurt, shot or arrested and we hope it continues so because we are going to use every legal procedure within our wits to challenge any act of shootings."
