Sack him now, lawmaker, activist tell Jonathan

Posted by admin House, Latest Politics, Legislature, Senate Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

A member of the House of Representatives, Abike Dabiri-Erewa and a Lagos lawyer, Dame Carol Ajie have asked President Goodluck Jonathan to sack his aide, Senator Mohammed Abba-Aji immediately over his comment on the Freedom of Information (FoI) Bill. Berating the former senator for his pronouncement on the Bill, Dabiri-Erewa who is the Committee Chairman on Diaspora said Nigerians had now known their enemy, especially as the passage of the controversial Bill was concerned.

She urged the president to speak out on the issue immediately, saying his refusal to do so would mean that he shares the sentiment of his special adviser on national assembly matters, adding that it was shameful that a former senator admitted that he worked against the passage of the Bill before and would continue to do so.
In a statement made available to newsmen, Ajie described as unacceptable Abba-Aji’s alleged vow to frustrate presidential assent to the Bill even if the Senate passed it into law.

The human rights activist stated that government should not be clouded in secrecy because Section 14 (2) of the 1999 constitution thrusts sovereignty on the people from whom the government derives its power and authority.
“In chiding the House of Representatives for its patriotic act, Abba-Aji said derogatorily that ‘what distinguishes man from animals is the way he handles information, noting that what happens in a house is not for public consumption as everyone has right to privacy. And you are under obscure constitutional oaths of secrecy, which purportedly restrains you from public disclosure’.

“Senator Abba-Aji must know that government business is not to be shrouded and clouded in the secret chessboards of individuals who desire to mock our nation’s destiny and toy with her people’s wealth with the sad effect of reducing us embarrassingly to the eternal status of the crippling giant of Africa.
“It is, therefore, required of Senator Abba-Aji to retract his damaging and derogatory statement on FoI Bill,” the statement said.

Ajie alleged that the senator’s comments seem to put the president in conflict with the people when the presidential elections would soon be conducted.
The statement urged the president to sign the Bill when it gets to him so that people could have access to information and participation in government.
“Mr. President Sir, you will sign our Freedom of Information Bill into law when it gets to your desk hopefully soon, with a great sense of pride and honour that our country will be an open society in which people’s access to information and participation in government is guarded and revered even by the Abba-Ajis,” it said.

Mrs Dabiri-Erewa said she had now been vindicated over her insistence that the forces working against the passage of the Bill were outside of the National Assembly, declaring that the stand of the special adviser was retrogressive, undemocratic, and an insult to Nigerians whom President Jonathan seeks to “lead for another four years with bad advisers like Abba-Aji who himself needs an adviser.”
The member of the House of Representatives further advised that; “the president should either sack Abba-Aji or denounce his statement or do both.” She also urged Nigerians to rise against their enemies as identified in people like Abba-Aji.
“Many countries including Africa have passed the FoI Bill and are better off for it. What is our problem, why must we continue to allow the Abba-Ajis to hold us to ransom.” Erewa queried.

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