Niger, Gabon Coup: Nigerians Are Also Being Provoked By Government’s Spendings – Falana
Falana gave the warning in Abuja while speaking at the National Symposium organized by the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, with the theme: “Nigeria Economy and the Crisis of Survival: Robbing the Poor to Pay the Rich. “
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, on Thursday, warned the Nigerian government and the political class not to provoke citizens to mutiny.
Falana gave the warning in Abuja while speaking at the National Symposium organized by the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, with the theme: “Nigeria Economy and the Crisis of Survival: Robbing the Poor to Pay the Rich. “
According to Vanguard, the warning is coming on the heels of the forceful removal of a democratically elected government through a coup d’etat in Africa by the soldiers.
The activist lamented that while the government has told the poor to tighten their belts and suffer the burden of the economic issues in the nation, public officials keep spending lavishly.
The legal luminary also attributed the recent trend of military juntas in Africa, particularly the most recent one that occurred in Gabon, to a number of factors, including the ruthless exploitation of African countries’ mineral resources by the west, third term syndrome, political manipulation of the constitution, and the establishment of foreign military bases in African nations.
He warned that as long as figures of extravagant spendings by the National Assembly continue to be churned out, Nigerians will be irritated and so will be enemies of democracy.
According to him, “They must be careful not to provoke Nigerians to mutiny. Some of the things going in the National Assembly show that we are in trouble; N70billion for palliatives for 469 people and when we said no they claimed it was for the facelift of the National Assembly.
“Three years ago, N37billion was earmarked for the facelift of the National Assembly. That contract has not been fully executed and there is no renewal of the contract so you cannot talk about N70billion for facelift.
“Secondly, 40 billion Naira to buy exotic cars now for the leadership of the National Assembly is not going to be allowed.
“The latest provocative news from the National Assembly is that 54 billion Naira has been earmarked for constituency projects for 360 members of the House of Representatives. It has come to 150 million per person; under this austere condition of the country.
“So when these figures are oozing out of the National Assembly Nigerians are being provoked and enemies of democracy are being provoked.
“The military has been honest to say that they are under pressure to dismantle this rickety political system but someone told them to go and deny it and they came out and denied it. But we can read between the lines. We can’t gather here to talk about democracy that is under threat.
“The immediate causes of coups in Africa today are third term syndromes, manipulation of constitution, military bases.
“Today, America has 29 military bases in Africa. France has 15. Soldiers are protesting because numbers of these foreign bases are receiving salaries as if they are in their countries. So the soldiers are protesting the preferential treatment between them and these foreign troops, so we must look at that.
“The remote causes are the ruthless exploitation of the mineral resources of our country by Western countries. The people are getting poorer.
“The poor are asked to tighten their belts even when they are dying. We may there discussing democracy, democracy is under threat in Africa.”
Credit: Sahara Reporters
