Don’t take Nigerians for a ride, CLO tells Buhari

The Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), South East zone, has warned President Mohammed Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to stop taking the people of Nigeria for a ride by fulfilling their electoral promises.

The CLO, which made the call during the week in a state of the nation media briefing, also said the citizens of Nigeria deserve better service and leadership or they would be tempted to say that “it is now time to rise up and take back our country which seems to have been totally hijacked.”

The South-East chairman of CLO, Comrade Aloysius Attah, who read the speech, lamented that in spite of APC’s promises of change, Nigerians were not seeing anything.

The rights advocacy organization lamented that the country is characterized by an absence of a “policy direction, an ailing president, economy in an unsteady and shaky condition, high cost of living, hardship everywhere in the land except the ruling political class who are insulated from the harsh realities, increasing incidences of suicide amongst others.”

It observed said that in the history of democratic process in Nigeria, since 1999, no administration has ever been loathed by the average Nigerian like the present Buhari regime but noted that it appeared as if the president and his party are not bothered.

CLO demanded for a full information on the president’s health and its ripple effect on the country’s economy, stating: “Nigerians do not only deserve to know the health status of the president but he should also reveal the amount he spent so far in his medical treatment abroad. because the treatment was at the expense of the nation’s treasury and therefore amounted to insult on the collective psyche of Nigerians if the presidency continues to shroud it in secrecy.

“Nigerians should not be taken for a ride anymore. The citizens also deserve better leadership and service or else we will be tempted to say that it is now time to rise up and take back our country which seems to have been totally hijacked.

“The height of killings and bloodshed from State and non-state actors under this administration has risen to its apogee and we condemn it in totality. The rights to life and respect for the dignity of the human persons as enshrined in chapter IV section 33 and 34 of the 1999 constitution has been consigned to the dustbin,” said the human right body,” the rights organization stated.

CLO challenged Nigerian leaders to learn their lessons from the travails of some countries who are answering charges of war crimes and unmitigated killings when they were at the helm of affairs in their respective countries.

The rights body condemned the federal government’s continued detention of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, and called for his immediate release, arguing that agitation for self-self-determination or rights of the people to existence is enshrined in the United Nations’ charter and African Charter on Human and People’s Rights which was ratified and domesticated by Nigeria in 1993.