State of emergency: Buhari has committed political suicide-Fasehun

*kicks against NAS salary for life

Frederick Fasehun has attributed the recent comment of the
presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC,
General Muhammadu Buhari, over the declaration of Emergency Rule in
Borno, Yobe and Adamawa and the ongoing campaign by the Military
against Boko Haram in those three states, describing such comment as
tantamount to political suicide. He also heavily condemned the
National Assembly new law to receive salary for life even after
leaving office.
Addressing journalists in Lagos, Fasehun insisted that Buhari’s
comment, which stated that the state of emergency rule in some parts
of north, amounted to levying war against the North, was not a comment
expected from a revered elder state’s man.
Reacting to the statement, Fasehun said: “coming from a personality
who aspires to rule Nigeria, that statement is reckless, bigoted and
uncharitable. It shows that we have been right all along, that Buhari
is the brain behind the Boko Haram insurgency ravaging the North.
 Buhari further claimed that the exercise was contrary to the
kid-glove treatment allegedly employed against Niger-Delta militants.
Buhari is being mischievous. Has he forgotten that before Niger-Delta
Amnesty, there was the destruction of Gbaramatu, the devastation of
Odi, the killing of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the era of the Niger-Delta Task
Force?
Buhari has always shown himself a sectional, chauvinistic personality.
This was a man who went to protest the killing of some Fulanis’ cows
in Ibadan by aggrieved natives who were protesting the killing of
farmers and the raping of their wives by Fulani herdsmen. How
insensitive and parochial can one be? No wonder Nigerians have always
rejected him at the polls since 2003. General Buhari’s body language
and utterances have always proclaimed him as a man who is most
comfortable flying a parochial, sectional and ethnic flag.
Buhari was part of the handful of Northern leaders who vowed that
Nigeria would become ungovernable should Jonathan win the last
presidential election; and these words have come true. The fact that
he has not been arrested for his utterances shows that it is in fact
Buhari that has been treated with kids’ glove by this government.
By his recent unguarded statement, Buhari has committed political
suicide; and if the North hopes to get the support of the other
sections of Nigeria for future elections, the North must begin to shop
for another Flag bearer other than Buhari.”
 Also reacting on the understanding that principal officers of the
National Assembly would henceforth enjoy salaries for life, Fasehun
described the move as immoral, dishonest and selfish provision.
His words: “Everywhere in the world, one of the basic principles of
law-making is that the law-maker will not make a law, which, in every
intent and purpose, is designed to benefit him. This was why, when in
2001, President Bill Clinton signed a new $400,000 salary for the
President of the United States in place of the old $200,000 (which had
been in place since 1969), Clinton himself could not benefit from the
new pay. The salary took effect only with his successor, President
George Bush.
“Nigerian lawmakers have refused to be guided by such lofty
precedents. Instead, they behave like they are a law unto themselves
and are only in office to service their own interests. The only place
you can allocate salaries and perquisites to yourself is in a one-man
business, and government business is hardly a one-man business. The
Legislature must submit itself to external discipline and control. As
at now, it is the only Nigerian institution that defies the
institutionalised checks and balances. The National Assembly has
become absolute in power; and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Beginning with their jumbo pay-packets, to the secrecy surrounding
their remunerations, members of the National Assembly have
demonstrated that they lack any modicum of interest in the welfare and
wellbeing of the Nigerian people but they are in office first and
foremost for their own selfish interests. Legislators must be banned
from fixing their own take-home pay and official entitlements. That
duty must revert to the agency constitutionally empowered to fix
public officers’ salaries, the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and
Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).”
 Stressing that there was vital need presently for a Sovereign
National Conference (SNC), he added: “Many of us will recall that the
calls for a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) became loudest during
the struggle for June 12. And today, all the available indices in
Nigeria justify the calls for a Sovereign National Conference that
will fashion out an acceptable Constitution for Nigeria. Today, the
National Assembly has endorsed a single tenure of six years for office
holders, with confusion about the fate of first-term executive
officers who are entitled to a second-term under this current
Constitution. It will appear as if the law were made to deliberately
place a stumbling block on the path of President Goodluck Jonathan, in
order to favour the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the
House of Representatives, both of whom are reportedly gunning to be
President of Nigeria. We recommend that the six-year single tenure
should commence after the expiration of the second tenure of whoever
is in office currently, whether as President, Vice President,
Governors or Deputy Governors.
Honourable members of the National Assembly should concentrate on
their core business of law-making and leave Constitution-making to a
Sovereign National Conference convened among all of Nigeria’s
federating units. The National Assembly must no longer stand in the
way of the Sovereign National Conference.”