Mr. Chukwuemeka Eze, the
National Publicity Secretary of the New Peoples Democratic Party, urged Nigerians
not to lose hope but to remain resolute in demanding good governance,
transparency and accountability from government at various levels as that is
the only way to force the corrupt clique in power to change their ways.
Mr Eze
while briefing the press said the President made it clear in February,
2011 while interacting with Nigerians and diplomats working in the United
Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union in Ankara, Turkey,
that he would have loved that the Nigerians in Diaspora voted during the
election that year, but added that that would be very difficult. If I can also
quote the President, he said, “Presently, the law does not allow the
voting outside Nigeria and so this year Nigerians in Diaspora will not vote but
I will work towards it by 2015 even though I will not be running for election.”
The President went ahead
to say four years was enough for anyone in power to make significant
improvement and that if he couldn’t improve on power within this period, it
then means he could not do anything even if he was there for more four years.
Moreover, Mr.Chukwu Eze added that ‘’Nigeria is still a crumbling
edifice, wrecked to the seams by corruption, bad leadership, ethnicism,
parochialism, sectarian intolerance and childish political recrimination and the
country at 53 has turned into a borderless valley of tears where life
expectancy hovers between 40 and 43 years. That is the truth. Nigerians are
callously extorted through various government agencies like the Power Holding
Company of Nigeria, which today excels in generating darkness and subjecting
Nigerians to the highest ever tariff regime.’’
‘’ The Federal Road
Safety Commission set up as a well-meaning agency to tame the rising cases of
road accidents has become a tool for mindless extortion through the issuing and
re-issuing of vehicle number plates and drivers’ licences at very exorbitant
prices.’’
‘’The petroleum sector
has become an illicit cash cow for the people in government, their friends and
relatives, who exploit hapless citizens through sundry means and cleansing the
treasury via a phantom fuel subsidy scheme that targets the friends and fronts
of the members of the government for enrichment.’’
‘’What could best
demonstrate the wanton brigandage going on in Nigeria than the fact that the
government, which set up the SURE-P programme with the huge N32 increment in
each litre of fuel Nigerians purchase, has recorded no known achievement with
the huge accruals from the increment? Today, SURE-P has sacked the 110,000
youths it placed on N10, 000 monthly allowances on the excuse that there is no
money to pay them. We ask, where is the government keeping the huge amount it
realises from the inhuman increment in the price of petrol, kerosene and
diesel?’’
‘At 53 years of
independence, our educational sector has completely crumbled and our
universities have been shut for close to three months simply because a
government that celebrates free loading of the nation’s resources cannot meet
the agreement it signed with university teachers four years ago. Our secondary
and primary school sectors are jerking at the most inefficient level;
neglected, abandoned and dejected and all have contributed to make Nigerian
certificates almost worthless.
''The health sector is in
a pitiable state as our hospitals cannot handle simple malaria cases. Nigerians
now troop to India and the far east Asian countries to treat common ailments
and nothing is being done to arrest this sad situation.’’ He said.
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