Lagos-based human rights lawyer,
Femi Aborisade, has called for the resignation of the special adviser on media
and publicity to the President of Nigeria, Femi Adesina.
He also condemned the various
attacks on a popular Nigerian entertainer, Charles Oputa (Charly Boy), some
anti-Buhari protesters and journalists during the protest at Wuse Market,
Abuja.
Addressing the media in Lagos,
Aborisade stated that Adesina’s comments against the critics of President
Muhammadu Buhari’s government could be linked to attack on the protesters.
The Presidential Spokesman had in
an opinion piece alluded that if not for the “reformed” position of President
Muhammadu Buhari as a “born-again democrat,” he could have permitted his supporters
to “take off the heads” of his critics.
Aborisade then reasoned that
“there is a link between Adesina’s threats suggesting the possibility of
assassinating government critics and the violent attacks on peaceful protesters
of the ‘Resume or Resign’ and ‘Our Mumu Don Do’ movements.”
He said: “This is why Femi
Adesina must be removed as a presidential spokesman. With the effrontery to
issue a public statement threatening that but for the ‘democratic dispensation’
of Buhari, orders could have been given to ‘take off the heads of government
critics.’ Femi Adesina has become a threat to Nigeria’s democracy.”
The human rights activist added
that “the right of dissent is a democratic right but the country seems to be in
danger under the APC regime that has proven absolutely incapable of solving any
of the problems compounded by the PDP’s 16 years of ruinous government.
“Rather than improving the living
standards of ordinary people, the APC has plunged Nigeria into unprecedented
levels of poverty. There is a relationship between economic instability and
political repression. Any regime that is incapable of addressing economic
hardship of its people would invariably be repressive.”
He called on all labor movements
and civil society organizations to defend civil liberties in the country,
arguing that “only massive but peaceful actions led by the labor movement may
prevent the implementation of the APC program as announced by Femi Adesina, in
terms of ‘taking off the heads’ of government critics.”
“Unless we resist the vicious
physical repression being unleashed on the#ResumeOrResign and#OurMumuDonDo
movements today, the labor movement and other democratic forces that may have
cause to protest may suffer greater repression on a larger scale in the
future,” he warned.
This is the problem with most people from the southern part of Nigeria. You hardly see a Northerner criticising a fellow northern man, but here in the South, the reverse is the case. I don't like Femi Adesina as a person but he's only doing his job. If u want him to resign because of that, u should equally ask Garba Shehu and all other under performing Aides and ministers to resign not just Femi Adesina.
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