*Says Wike should stop behaving like motor park leader
“The governor is not a motor park leader. A governor governs everybody, including those who are ugly, those who are beautiful.
“The governor must know that his office comes with responsibilities,” those were the exact words of Atiku Abubakar, admonishing the Rivers State Governor, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, to soft-pedal in taking actions that would undermine the cause of democracy in Nigeria.
Atiku, reacted against the backdrop of the sealing-off of his campaign office in Port Harcourt by Wike on Friday.
He said Wike’s actions remained a huge blow on Nigerians, because the result amounted to denying the people of the right to know, against the principle of democracy, being the government of the people, by the people and for the people.
Speaking through Mr. Charles Aniagwu, Delta State Commissioner for Information, and a spokesman of the Peoples Democractic Party Presidential Campaign Council (PDP-PCC), on Arise Television Friday night, Atiku said, the development was not healthy, as the ultimate loser would not be himself, the party or the campaign, but Nigerians and democracy.
He said: “We believe it is not a healthy development, even not our party. It is not going to be the right thing to do for us when individuals are reaching out to members of the public.
“The reason why you have a campaign office and individuals helping you to push your agenda is to be able to open up the space so that the electorates will be able to make informed choices based on available options and available policies and how the individuals have been able to put out their policies to digest.
“But when you begin to strangulate that process by taking actions that are a little selfish and not advancing the cause of democracy, you’ll see that the person is not taking actions against those he’s intending to take actions against, you’re also taking actions to undermine the democratic rights of innocent Nigerians to be well informed about the actions of those who are seeking to govern them.
“That’s why we plead with all governors, irrespective of their political parties, to try as much as possible to open up the space.
“These individuals came into office via an open process, where nobody strangulated the process. Atiku won the primaries fair and square. What we have suffered in the PDP is the danger of a single story.
“We didn’t want to tell our story, because we have been searching for peace and we’ll continue to search for peace, believing that at the end of the day, by doing so, we’ll have been able to show that we want a much more united country and a country that is going to be much more peaceful”.
Insisting that the governor’s action was part of the reason, many were apprehensive of supporting state police, Atiku said it was unimaginable what would happen should other governors decided to copy him in shutting down the democratic space and denying those they opposed to reach out to the people.
“If individuals continue to take actions to undermine the successes we’re recording by reaching out to Nigerians, anybody that wants to mete out to Nigerians the same punishment that we’ve suffered in the last seven and half years, cannot be said to be doing so in the best interest of Nigerians.
“But, I’m quite happy that majority of Nigerians are discerning enough to be able to take their actions.
“So, when one man wants to arrogate to Nigerians the power of deciding how everybody will vote, and he goes ahead to say I’ll tell them who they will vote for, you know that is trying to overreach oneself.
“Nigerians will take their own decisions believing that decision will be in their own interest. When you make executive orders to strangulate the political process, you’re not helping the grit of democracy.
“It is also said, of course, we’ll not take that route that those who make peaceful change impossible, inevitably, are also asking for violent reaction. We’ll not take that particular route”, he stressed.
He added: “We want a Nigerians, particularly Nigerians to continue to point out actions that inimical to the growth and advancement of democracy. These actions are very well known.
“When you see individuals, the public space is locked up, you’re asked to pay a ridiculous amount to use a public space, including your own houses now, are also restricted by laws that were hitherto not in place, by laws that were not in place when individuals came into office and you think those laws are what every individual are just going ahead to obey?
“Imagine if every state begins to behave that way to say you can’t use a primary school ground, you can’t use a church ground, you can’t use anywhere and the little space that you can use, you now put in executive orders, so that nobody can use anything, the only thing they’ve not even done is to pass an executive order where you and your wife cannot even sleep in your room.
“This is not healthy for our democracy. We must be able to speak up. It is true that we’ll want to pursue peace and we’ll continue to pursue peace, we believe that in the fullness of time, these our leaders who are in our party will see reasons for them to help in advancement of democracy.
“When you see an individual wanting to arrogate all the powers to himself, and threaten everybody and says, nobody dares, you begin to wonder whether it’s the same country where all of us have been and where all these powers are coming from.
“And you can see the reasons where sometimes, some persons are quite sceptical about state police.
“When you see a threat coming from a man occupying a position of authority and responsibility, where when you speak, you’ll be able to bring peace, and what you do is to threaten people around you, including those who elected you, you begin to wonder what must have happened.
“But I do believe that in the course of time, individuals will have to re-examine where they are today, what they’re doing to both the growth of our democracy and the democratic space, so that at the end of the day, in the fullness of time, they’d have been able to look back, like it is said, after the race, you count the miles, you will be able to have the opportunity to look at the records as to what did we do to advance democracy.
“The governor is not a motor park leader. A governor governs everybody, including those who are ugly, those who are beautiful. The governor must know that his office comes with responsibilities.”
The PDP in the state had cried out earlier that the governor sealed the campaign office, via an Executive Orders 21 and 22, “for producing noisy political activities in residential areas without approval from the State government.”
The Rivers State PDP presidential campaign council, which made this known, noted that the office, located in GRA Port Harcourt was sealed off in the early hours of Friday, after waiting in vain for the written application it submitted to the authorities, seeking approval to use the office premise for its political activities, to be responded to.
PDP, had earlier in a quick riposte, said; “The public is hereby informed that the sealed premises had no bill board or poster, since the approval had not been given, yet it was sealed off, a sign that the delay in the approval is premeditated and computed to cause this sort of unlawfulness.”
“We condemn this act because it rubs off on our fundamental right to free expression of interest. Furthermore, this egregious move by the Rivers State Government, seen in the prism of politics, tends to militarise our democracy and renders our dear state politically recessive when juxtaposed with other states in the country,” the media team said in a statement.
“We urge our dear leaders in the state to challenge this illegality in a court of competent jurisdiction so that friction can disappear from our political space. The right to campaign for preferred candidate is enshrined in the Constitution of Nigeria, which is the grand norm from which every other law derives its power.
“Thus, every clash between the Constitution and any other made law should be resolved in favour of the Constitution. The Rivers State Government, we dare say, is subject to the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as Amended).
“It is our duty to remind Governor Wike and his co-travellers that they, like everyone else, are subject to the Laws of Nigeria.
“Meanwhile we charge the Rivers State PDP PCC, our dear leaders, to see to it that this unlawful disruption of campaign activities does not rattle their cage. They must continue to function as they always had prior to the existence of the Secretariat. Tyranny will expire in our state. If the Nazi Regime could die in Germany, then this facsimile of such will die even much faster to the glory of God and liberty of Rivers State.”
