From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Democratic Watch Initiative has to Vice President Kassim Shettima, to maintain neutrality in the election of National Assembly leadership tussle.
The group claimed that some persons have been hired to allegedly harass and intimidate some frontline aspirants like Senator Abdul’aziz Yari, on the day of inauguration.
Its Secretary, Lawal Rabiu Tinka, told journalists yesterday in Abuja, that the impunity must stop, adding that if the government attempt to become a lawbreaker, it would breed contempt of the law.
Tinka said: “We are worried also that while the principle and practice of the separation of powers, is a major hallmark of democratic governance, players in the current administration, in an open display of recklessness, are working on violating this major pillar, thereby threatening orderly society and potentially placing democracy and the Nigerian state at imminent risk.
“Whereas in practice, each organ is constitutionally barred from encroaching on the boundaries of another organ,
“We note a rising level of intensification of the desperation of the executive arm of this government to impose a leadership on the legislature by every means and tactic.
“This dangerous desperation has led to devising various schemes to deny major aspirants to the Senate Presidency and Speakership of the House of Representatives their constitutional rights to seek election through a democratic due process.
“These devices, we note, include plans to forcefully deny them and their perceived supporters access to the Assembly on the day of the inauguration, harassing and intimidating them through stage-managed arrest and most recently securing a frivolous court injunction against the aspiration of Abdul’aziz Yari in particular.
“We fear that if such level of arrogant dictatorship, autocratic arbitrariness, and blatant impunity are left unchecked, Nigeria’s democracy would collapse totally under this administration before it clocks one year.
“Regrettably, this hallowed principle appears to mean little to the current Nigerian political leadership whose contempt for legislative independence and autonomy is symptomatic of the disdain for the rule of law by the likes of Kashim Shettima, the Vice President of Nigeria and his ilk occupying the highest public offices in the country today.
“Today we say, this impunity must stop and call on all Nigerians, young and old, men and women, traditional, cultural and religious leaders, politicians, civil servants, businessmen and women, teachers and students, the media and the civil society to rise and get involved in this struggle to free our country and our democracy from this emerging dictatorship.
“We invite the attention of Nigeria’s friends in the international community to the emerging trend in Nigeria and call on them to be vigilant as to the direction our country and our democracy are headed.
“To call out Kashim Shettima’s hypothetical inconsistency in speaking out against the use of religion in politics in one breathe and in another breathe manipulating the same religious sentiments to drive this dangerous agenda.”