Dr. Lelonu Nwibubasa, the former Commissioner for Empowerment and Employment Generation in Rivers State, has charged that President Bola Tinubu has disregarded and marginalized the state’s citizens.
Nwibubasa claimed that by designating a non-indigenous person as the Chairman of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, or RSIEC, Tinubu created a disastrous precedent.
When answering questions on Arise Television’s Morning S
The announcement follows the appointment of Dr. Michael Ekpai Odey, an indigenous person from Cross River State, as the chairman of the RSIEC.
On Thursday, Senate President Godswill Akpabio delivered a letter from Tinubu outlining seven candidates who would be vetted to fill the roles of chairman and RSIEC members: Dr. Michael Ekpai Odey (Chairman). Professors Arthur Nwafor, Godfrey Woke Mbudiogha, Joyce Akaniwor, Dr. (Mrs.) Olive A. Bruce, Professor Chidi Halliday, and Mr. Lezaasi Lenee Torbira are among the members.
Speaking on the subject on Friday, Nwibubasa called the incident “adding salt to injury” and charged Tibubu of continuously destroying all of the Rivers people’s political and governmental institutions and replacing them with foreigners.
how program on Friday, the former commissioner made this statement.
“I am as surprised as you are that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has not rescinded that very unconstitutional decision three months after the state of emergency was declared in violation of every known constitutional provision, despite widespread condemnations, appeals, and criticism from well-meaning Nigerians,” he said.
Instead, as you mentioned, we observe that the Rivers people’s political and governmental institutions are being steadily replaced by foreigners, which exacerbates the situation.
“Where in Nigeria have we had a state’s Independent Electoral Commission led by a person from another state?” This sets a really bad example.
“And so Nigerians shall also be asking if we can get chairman of electoral commissions from other countries like Ghana and those doing well in their democracy to come and head that of Nigeria, since Rivers State has become the space where we will begin to experiment this kind of thing.
“So to us in Rivers State, it is an embarrassing moment. It is a complete show of disrespect to Rivers people by the President Tinubu administration. He has disregarded River State so badly, pushing us to the background, forgetting our contribution to national growth and development and to the stabilization of the of this country.
“I think this it is a joke taken too far, and as Rivers people, I can tell you that what we see today in the entire jamboree of the National Assembly, seeing clearly that the man nominated is not from Rivers State, yet they went ahead to allow it pass because the President has sanctioned it.”I can tell you that the National Assembly is in disarray because, as parliamentarians, you are unable to recognize what you perceive to be an anomaly and cannot return to the President to inform him that this is not feasible and that it must be a Rivers native. Nevertheless, after observing this anomaly, they said that we must take this unpleasant pill. This is regrettable, and I can assure you that people are not pleased, Rivers. We’re going to fight this constitutionally.
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