Says: Senators, Reps killed democracy
Professor Pat Utomi, a professor of political economics and founder of the Centre for Values in Leadership, said that the State of Emergency declared in Rivers State and the suspension of Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy, Mrs Ngozi Odu, and members of the State Assembly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu were deliberately contrived for selfish purposes.
He said that the National Assembly had become consistent in insulting the Nigerian people, stressing that “we do not have a democracy anymore.”
Utomi said; “The question is how we proceed from here recognising that we don’t have a democracy. I cried for our beloved country. How could they do this to us after all these years?
“Most of these characters were hiding when people like us put our lives on the line for this democracy and now they shrivel it, they make it a joke for a mess of pottage. What a tragedy for a country! What a tragedy!” he said.
He said that democracy was murdered in Nigeria by members of the National Assembly that used voice vote to arrive at two-thirds majority votes.
Professor Utomi, who stated these when he featured on Channels Television, said that he did not feel comfortable to publicly say that he came from a country that was a democracy.
Read him; “Nigeria is not a democracy. Even the manner of the declaration of a State of Emergency in Rivers State was so disdainful of the sensitivity of the Nigerian people.
“You will recall many years ago when there were questions of whether or not the third term thing was going to happen, people wanted to see who voted one way or the other in a matter of profound national importance, to do what the lawmakers did, was an insult to the Nigerian people.
“Yeah, I’ve heard the senate president call for a voice vote before and everybody said nay and he said the ayes have it. I have it on video; I’ve seen it before. So, the whole thing is a scam on the Nigerian people.
“Very sadly, I watched the Nigerian political class demolish Nigerian institutions. It may give them warm moments and ‘personal victory’ but it destroys the future of their children and I hope they know that our institutions have been destroyed.
“They have destroyed the judiciary, and the National Assembly does not constitute another realm that has oversight or checks or balances to the other; it is just a complete joke. The world laughs at us and it is a tragedy that we are where we are.
“What is the problem in River State that warrants a state of emergency? Tell me what it is. When pipelines were blown like popcorn in River State, was there a state of emergency? Why did he (Tinubu) not declare a state of emergency in Lagos State when the Assembly was tossing back and forth? Why Rivers?
“There is something about fairness, equity, and pure decency and I don’t see it here. I think that is a shame that they want to rubbish the democracy that we all fought so hard for, but you know karma, it comes back to haunt everybody. “Unfortunately, we’re going to stay in poverty for a long time because of the conduct of these kinds of people in public life.
“Look, let’s be fair, this is supposed to be a case of two fighting, who are these two fighting? Let us name them and over what are they fighting and why do a whole people have to bear the brunt of these outsized egos damaging the peace of all? For whatever it is, they claim they are fighting which is not in our constitution?
“We don’t know anything about fathers or godfathers in our constitution and one man cannot sit in judgment in his court where he is an active partisan and make these kinds of choices and the Nigerian people just sit and watch. That is a tragedy for our country.
“I’ve said before that there was a time when Nigeria went into a recession because pipelines were going off like Christmas crackers and we didn’t see a state of emergency declared. Why now? It doesn’t make sense to me.
“You can go around the world fooling yourself saying you’re attracting investment and with just a simple decision, they made Nigeria unattractive for investments.
“Everybody who is a serious investor picks it off, serious instability, they have declared martial law in a part of the country, in fact, the part of the country that is most critical for their revenue flows.
“I don’t know how we carry on this kind of masochistic behaviour, load the machine, go shoot ourselves in the foot because of our egos, because we cannot control ourselves as politicians. “Two fighting,” as they say, and one person takes sides with the other.
“It’s just a shame that the Nigerian people have inherited this kind of political class and we are not going anywhere as a country until we get rid of this political class, I assure you.”
He said that Nigeria was irresponsible, adding that it formed the reason why its economy was not growing and people were suffering, dying of hunger, saying that there was poverty in the land.
Utomi said; “Instead of focusing on how we can create a developmental state that cares about the people, people go to the National Assembly, and rubbish their country and make it a place that is not attractive for investment. There will be judgment, I assure you, there will be judgement.”
FOR ADVERT AND NEWS PUBLICATION, EMAIL US @ tarakirivoicenewspaper@gmail.com or call or WhatsApp us on 08160439769
