By Chesa Chesa
The Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) on Tuesday charged Nigerians to mobilise and rise up against the recent congregation of corrupt politicians and ex-convicts being hosted by President Bola Tinubu in Aso Rock Villa.
The CLO is particularly miffed by the visit of ‘Class of 99’ Governors to President Tinubu to assure him of their support and cooperation whereas the same set of Governors has some of them either convicted for corruption or facing corruption charges.
‘Class of 99’ are former State Governors of between 1999 and 2007 from across political divides. Tinubu was also Governor of Lagos State then, while his current Chief of Staff, George Akume, was Governor of Benue State during same period.
The meeting had in attendance former Governors James Ibori (Delta State), Donald Duke (Cross River), Niyi Adebayo (Ekiti), Lucky Igbinedion (Edo), Orji Uzor Kalu (Abia), Sam Egwu (Ebonyi).
Others were Chimaroke Nnamani (Enugu), Ibrahim Saminu Turaki (Jigawa), Adamu Muazu (Bauchi), Obong Victor Attah (Akwa Ibom), Olusegun Osoba (Ogun), Bisi Akande (Osun), Ahmed Yerima (Zamfara), Jolly Nyame (Taraba), Attahiru Bafarawa (Sokoto) and Joshua Dariye (Plateau).
Reacting to this development during a press conference in Abuja, the CLO charged Nigerians not to remain docile while the set of politicians who bastardised the democracy obtained and sustained by blood of fellow Nigerians and activists, return to inflict more pain on those who are managing and struggling to survive their initial onslaught.
President of CLO, Mr. Igho Akeregha, and Executive Director of the organisation, Mr. Ibuchukwu Ezike, who addressed the press conference, said that “through determination and spilling of the blood of innocent citizens, the civil societies, the media and other patriotic Nigerians chased the military out of power culminating in the historic return to civilian rule in 1999.
“Within 24 years between then and now, the political class parading themselves as civilian leaders have brought the country to her knees through massive corruption and stealing of our common patrimony.
“Like many Nigerians, we in the CLO are not deceived by the regrouping of these former Governors who are now shedding crocodile tears over the state of anomie in the country.
“They had eight years in office and some of them went to the Senate, what did they do? They continued in their old ways. And what manner of support would they be giving to Tinubu beyond an arrangement to accommodate them in the underdeveloping the country?
“The CLO is urging Nigerians to keep vigil over our hard won democracy as the regular visits and hob-nobbing of the former Governors and corrupt politicians with Tinubu at the seat of power is a clear and present danger to efforts to rebuild our battered country.
“We appeal to President Tinubu whose election is being seriously challenged at the election petitions court to not convert the highest office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria into a rehabilitation centre for politicians who put the country in this sorry state.”
Akeregha and Ezike furrheer stated that “the CLO, which led from the front in our collective quest and struggle for a just society where citizens should be proud to call themselves Nigerians, is drawing local and international attention to the regrouping of these questionable individuals who are mobilising and now poised to determine the future of the country in accordance with their sordid standard and definition.
“Impoverished Nigerians who are currently reeling in pains and anguish from the so-called subsidy removal, multiple taxation, hike in electricity tariff and other forms of neo-colonial slavery as a direct consequence of corruption MUST quickly wake up from their slumber to find their lost voice.
“Collectively, Nigerians say no to blood-sucking groups of vampires who have left our wealthy country in ruins and transformed it into a vast killing field of innocent citizens.
“We call on Nigerians to organise and mobilise to take back their country for ‘eternal vigilance is the price of liberty’.”
According to Akeregha, “we have to take back our country, with our collective voices because in a country of over 200 million people, if you have 50 million people talking, telling the government that enough is enough, I’m sure they (government officials) will be very uncomfortable. So they are doing what they are doing because the rest of us are just quiet.”
“Now the question is how long are we going to tolerate this direct assault on our livelihood? This is an existential issue, it is about life and death and existential issue. So if you do not rise up, whether you’re a lawyer, a medical doctor, a journalist, whatever profession that you find yourself if you do not say that enough is enough, I can tell you oppressors do not give up.
“The only language oppressors understand is a stronger force of resistance. When that comes, we, CLO, are not going to negotiate with them and will not hold any meeting with anybody. We are going to continue what we are doing we have a tradition of resistance to obnoxious and oppressive policies.
“Once we see that the policies that is being pushed out by any government, whether the national subnational level is anti people, we confront it. That’s our strategy.
“So when government pushes policies that seem to push you into extinction, you have the right to resist. It is within the ambit of the law for you to resist using every legal means at your disposal.
“The truth is, if this morning, we can find 500 Nigerians who will go to the gate of the National Assembly and sit down on the floor that nobody’s going to come out and go out, even if they shoot and kill they will be tired of killing.”
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