FoI Bill/Igbo presidency Abba-Aji swallows words

Posted by admin Latest Politics Thursday, March 3rd, 2011

Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Mohammed Abba-Aji, said he did not foreclose the emergence of an Igbo person as the President of the country in 2015.

He said his statement that Vice-President Namadi Sambo would step in when President Goodluck Jonathan steps down in 2015 was his personal view which was neither solicited nor desired by the Vice-President.

In a statement in Abuja yesterday, the presidential aide who has come under attack for his position on the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill just passed by the House of Representatives said he strongly believed the Igbo had the right to seek any public office, including that of the presidency.
“Contrary to this statement, I strongly believe that my Igbo brothers and sisters have equal rights with all members of other ethnic groups of our nation to seek any public office including the exalted office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“The statement as it relates to Vice President Namadi Sambo is entirely my personal view, which he neither desired nor solicited. I, therefore, hereby withdraw it, and regret any misunderstanding that it might have generated,” Abba-Aji said in the statement personally signed by him.

On the controversy surrounding his statement on the FOI bill, he said he only tried to draw attention to a conflict which he thought the law might likely have with the seventh schedule of the Constitution as it related to the oath of office and the extant Official Secrecy Act.

“I also tried to make the distinction between the Freedom of Information Bill, which seeks to compel public officers to reveal official matters, and the freedom of the press which is already enshrined as Section 39 of the Constitution,” he said.

-Sunwp_posts