Buhari should be barred from all foreign trips till insecurity is resolved- Falana

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has asked that President Muhammadu Buhari and other top holders of public offices be barred from foreign trips until the insecurity in the country is resolved.

Falana, while presenting a paper on press freedom in Nigeria and the rule of law, said the president and all governors should be barred by Nigerians from embarking on foreign private or official visits to other countries until further notice.

The President is currently on a 10-day private visit to the United Kingdom and is expected to return to Nigeria on May 5, 2019.

Falana, had earlier criticised Buhari’s visit to the UK, describing it as illegal.

He said: “The President is not permitted by the constitution to abandon the enormous responsibilities of his office for 10 days on account of a private visit to the United Kingdom or any other country whatsoever.”

During the paper presentation, the senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN) attributed the root cause of insecurity to poverty, adding that the menace cannot be curbed outside Nigeria.

READ ALSO: Nigeria is under attack, return home now, PDP tells Buhari

“It is high time President Buhari and all state governors who are abroad returned to the country to attend to the urgent crisis of insecurity,” he said.

“With the virtual take-over of the country by armed bandits, terrorists and kidnappers, the president and all top public officers should be barred by Nigerians from embarking on foreign private or official visits to other countries until further notice.

“It is common knowledge that the security challenges facing the nation include terrorism, kidnapping, armed robbery, human trafficking and extra-judicial killings. As the root cause of such violent crimes is traceable to the excruciating poverty in the land, a critical examination of the security challenges cannot be undertaken outside the nation’s neo-colonial capitalist political economy.”

Commenting on the role of the media, Falana said the constitution has charged members of the fourth estate of the realm to hold public officers accountable.

He advised the press to shun putting light on the certificate controversy of politicians but nudge them to provide solutions to underlying issues of poverty and underdevelopment.

“In Nigeria, no attempt has been made to repeal any of the repressive media laws while the national assembly has been trying frantically to censor the media and use the pending press council to gag the media,” Falana said.

“All elected public officers should be made to proffer solutions to the crisis of underdevelopment and stop the irrelevant debate on the educational qualification of any candidate.

“Since the 2019 elections have been concluded the duty imposed on the media is to ensure that political parties and elected officials are held accountable.

He also called for a review of the concept and understanding of the rule of law among politicians.

“While senior public officers continue to give the impression that the country is operated under the rule of law their actions and utterances suggest otherwise. In the process, the country is reduced to a banana republic where the rule of law is substituted for the rule of the rulers,” he said.

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