The Action Congress should re-think their opposit’on to the Yar’Adua’s call to expunge the immunity clause from the constitution. It smells of opposing something just for the sake of opposition, which have no basis in fact, to use the opposition’s words. When the President, Vice President, Governors and their deputies, understand that they could not hide behind the immunity clause to brazenly loot their respective states’ treasuries, they will be frightened to moderate their kleptomania.
On December 10th, Nigeria’s President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, proposed a scorched-earth policy, a constitutional change to remove the immunity clause enjoyed by him as President, the Vice-President, the 36 governors and their deputies in Nigeria. The clause shields these individuals from being prosecuted while in office.
Mr. Yar’Adua was quoted as saying that the clause had become a cover for non-performance, ineptitute and corrupt practices and therefore urged the National Assembly to expunge it from Nigeria’s constitution to “save the nation some excesses that may emanate from the continued observance of the clause.”
The President made the observation at the launching of the Anti-Corruption Revolution (ANCOR) campaign by the anti-corruption agency Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
“Some of the steps and measures we may have to take in order to entrench the fight against corruption is to look at some of our laws. I want today to call for the abrogation of the constitutional provision of the immunity clause for President, Vice President, Governors and Deuty governors. Corruption in Nigeria is a major problem,” said Mr. Yar’Adua.
“Corruption is endemic in this country,” he continued. “There is absolutely no way this nation can achieve its potential unless this challenge is confronted frontally by all Nigerians,” he said.
Despite their continued resentment on how he came into office, through what the President himself acknowledged as flawed election, rigged in his favor and just upheld by the Nigerian Supreme Court, Nigerians gave him a thumbs-up on what they took as a bold move to combat the endemic corruption in the country. Of course, there are many Nigerians who doubt the sincerity of the President, given how his government removed the former Chairman of the EFCC from office, and proceeded to hound and persecute Nuhu Ribadu out of office.
But the majority of Nigerians nevertheless believe that the immunity clause has been abused by many governors, who see the clause as an passport to enrich themselves from the treasuries of their respective states. Whether Yar’Adua was sincere or not in proposing the abrogation of the clause has become immaterial to Nigerians. They want to see the clause expunged from the Nigerian constitution.
It therefore came as a major shocker to read that one of the main opposition parties in Nigeria, the Action Congress, was vehemently opposed to the immunity clause being expunged from the constitution of Nigeria.
According to the party, Yar’Adua’s proposal was nothing but “an emotional reaction not grounded in fact.” “Unless we have a strong political will,” the party’s statement continued, “develop an institutional capacity backed by a massive re-orientation of public officials in particular and make corruption unattractive by subjecting offenders to a stiff penalty, the fight against corruption is doomed, whether or not we remove the immunity clause.”
The statement further said, “Today, 419ers (financial fraudsters), crooks and people of dubious characters are serving in state and federal legislatures or as councillors, council chairmen and governors. How did they scale the hurdle to contest before they were even elected or selected in the first instance? This is the fundamental issue we should be tackling.”
I am sitting here scratching my head and wondering what kind of idiotic reaction from the opposition party. Have they gone bananas? Through their disingenuous reasoning, state commissioners, federal and state permanent secretaries, directors and assistant directors and other top public officials,” who do not enjoy immunity, but basically form “the bulk of those who implement policies and therefore oversee huge amounts of money allocated for various projects,” haven’t been charged for corruption yet, therefore the proposal should not be implemented.
There is something absolutely wrong with this reasoning. Half a loaf of bread is better than none. We are aware of how brazenly governors used the fact that they enjoy immunity to loot the money entrusted to them for their people.
There is no doubt that the opposition, Action congress, is right in pointing to the cardinal sins of electoral malfeasance in the country. And that the person who benefited most from this malfeasance advocating the expunging of the immunity clause, smacks of hypocrisy. But, if in making this proposal, Yar’Adua was to further the cause of the employment of stronger weapons in fighting and eradicating corruption in the country, then it is the entire country that would benefit.
The Action Congress should re-think their opposition to the Yar’Adua’s call to expunge the immunity clause from the constitution. It smells of opposing something just for the sake of opposition, which have no basis in fact, to use the opposition’s words. When the President, Vice President, Governors and their deputies, understand that they could not hide behind the immunity clause to brazenly loot their respective states’ treasuries, they will be frightened to moderate their kleptomania.
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