Buhari erred on state of emergency – Fasehun

The Founder of the Oodua Peoples Congress, Dr. Frederick Fasehun, has attributed the recent comment of the presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change, General Muhammadu Buhari, over the declaration of emergency rule in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States and the ongoing campaign by the military against Boko Haram in those three states, describing such comment as being tantamount to political suicide.
Fasehun also condemned the new law of the National Assembly that will see the lawmakers receive salary for life after
leaving office.
Addressing journalists in Lagos, Fasehun said Buhari’s comment, which stated that the state of emergency rule in some parts of North amounted to levying war against the zone, was not a comment expected from a revered elder statesman.
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.”
Speaking on the proposal that principal officers of the National Assembly would henceforth enjoy their salaries for life, Fasehun said: “Everywhere in the world, one of the basic principles of lawmaking is that the lawmaker 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 serve 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.”