The Rivers Civil Society Organisation (RIVSCO) has warned the Presidency under President Muhammadu Buhari against any deliberate act to undermine the Office of the Vice President saying that “it is dangerous for our democracy.”
Enefaa Georgewill, Chairman of RIVSCO gave the warning while reacting to the Independence Day speech of President Buhari during which he announced the moving of N-Power and NSIP out of the office of Vice President, YemiOsinbajo.
Georgewill said: “Our response is that there is ordinarily nothing wrong with a government shuffling its agencies for better productivity or the office where it best feels will produce the best for the enjoyment for its people.
“In this light, we don’t see anything wrong so far as it doesn’t have the political undertone speculated in some quarters. We cannot pretend not to be aware of rumours that the Presidency wants to strip off the Vice President of some powers.
“While we wouldn’t want to dabble into petty rumours, we would want to warn that such a deliberate act to undermine the Office of The Vice President is dangerous for our democracy.
“The Office of the President & Vice President is a joint mandate in law. The court had clarified this in the popular case of Atiku Vs Obasanjo. In the spirit of that judgment, the President ought to liaise with the Vice President in barely all aspects of governance.
“Any attempt to relegate the Vice President to the background may lead to unnecessary tension in the polity that may affect governance.”
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On the other issues raised by the President in the speech, the RIVSCO Chairman stated: “The President’s speech is generally not inspiring. The entire speech in our opinion is characterised by the usual subtle threats seen in previous independent speeches since the advent of this administration.
“It’s quite pathetic, to say the least, and ridiculous at worst that a government which has turned itself into the law and have flagrantly disobeyed our law courts could turn around to accuse Nigerians of being lawless and should change our ways. He who comes to equity must come with clean hands.
“A fish rots from its head. Nigerians are generally law-abiding people but have suffered several years of bad leadership that turned us to very desperate people in order to survive.
“What this government calls lawlessness is caused by the failure of the government to fix and organise a modern society that will inspire hope, encourage good behaviour and lift the dignity of the people. The Government is to blame in the current socio-economic & political disorder in the country. The Government should start by obeying court orders as the office of the President is a creation of law.
“On the issue of hate speech, there is no doubt that there is a need to improve on our cyber laws to checkmate false information and other global cybercrimes. However, such laws should be properly reviewed not to input clauses that will trample on the fundamental citizens rights to free speech and thought.
“This clarification is very important because this current government is notorious for its penchant to shrink civil spaces and clamp down on dissent or opposing views on the pretext of fighting hate speech. To make it worse, it disobeys court orders and tends to interpret the constitution which is the duty of the court.
“This government have shown in the case of Sowere & others that it picks and chooses which court orders to obey or disobey. We, therefore, call on the civil society space in Nigeria, professional bodies, the media, students and youths to organise and prepare to resist this threat before our hard-earned democracy will degenerate into a full-blown dictatorship. The time to act is now!” he said.