Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has described “the current leadership of the National Assembly, particularly the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives as the worst performing principal officers of the National Assembly in history of Nigeria.”
While reacting to a recent call by legal luminary, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), who faulted 17 southern governors’ demand for a constitutional conference and said the 415 Senators and Reps members are a waste of resources, the CNPP said “the national lawmakers have remained the worst disappointment to the Nigerian electorates.”
According to the unbrella body of all registered political parties and political associations in Nigeria in a statement signed by the CNPP Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu, “the Southern Governors’ ban on open grazing is the right way in the right direction but there has to be in place a domesticated legal framework for enforcement rather than a mere mouthed ban, which amounts to political statement.
“However, their call for a national confab is faulty as the recommendations from past national dialogues are accumulating dusts and should be put to use by the National Assembly as there are no new issues in the country that have not been discussed at earlier national confabs.
“But, unfortunately, the current leadership of the National Assembly has remained the worst rubber stamp principal officers ever.
“We agree with Mike Ozekhome (SAN) who spoke in Anambra State on Thursday, as a keynote speaker at the 25th Law Week of the Awka branch of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), where he described the Southern governors’ suggestion for another confab as unnecessary.
“Like the human rights lawyer said, what is wrong with previous confab resolutions and recommendations?
“Recommendation from the Obasanjo’s national dialogue, the PRONACO people’s confab by late Chief Anthony Enahoro, and the Jonathan’s 2014 confab all have recommendations, which addressed our current challenges, among others.
“If Nigeria had implemented the recommendations of the 2014 confab, there would have been a state police today and we would have had a part-time legislature, among others, that would have nipped in the bud current restiveness and agitations across the country, including the ongoing deafening insecurity.
“Since 2015, the All Progressives Congress (APC) led administration has carried on as if all is well with the country and have continued to avoid burning issues of national interests, sacrificing the future of our youths on the alter of party loyalty.
“Why have Nigerian political elites continued to postpone the doomsday? The gloomy future we failed to work against is now our current reality and insecurity has reached the highest level under the current APC led federal government.
“The earlier we wake up and confront our fears, the better to for us all”, the CNPP warned.
