Posted by By ANDY ASEMOTA, Katsina on
Former speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Bello Masari, has lambasted the Umar Musa Yar'Adua regime for the proposed government of national unity, saying it will be a ruse unless the political parties involved harmonize their manifestos and programmes.
Former speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Bello Masari, has lambasted the Umar Musa Yar'Adua regime for the proposed government of national unity, saying it will be a ruse unless the political parties involved harmonize their manifestos and programmes.
Speaking in his country home shortly after a reception organized in his honour by his kith and kin and Muslim clerics in Katsina State, Masari said that a true unity government was not based on appointments offered some politicians in certain parties.
Said he: "If you are forming a unity government by giving appointments to people of the other parties, I don't think that is true. I think what the party should do is to allow governors or local government chairman or president to pick people from whichever political party even if they are not politicians."
He further explained that individuals, rather than parties, should be invited to participate in unity government. He warned that the nation's political development would not be on a secured footing unless political parties were allowed to be democratic.
"The bane of our problems is that there is no democracy in the parties. No exception," he declared.
Asked if he would accept any invitation to participate in current government, Hon. Masari, whose governorship ambition was thwarted by President Yar'Adua, said he would not turn his back on the Yar'Adua government.
"People are trying to create something which is not there. I am ready to serve my country, but there are certain positions that I will not hold," he stated.
Waxing philosophical, Masari said: "In democracy, if you don't accept something, you must be prepared to live with it and that is the fundamental of democracy."