Posted by By Simon Ateba, Damilola Kolade & Ayorinde Fasugba on
A pro-democracy group, the United Action for Democracy, UAD, yesterday, called on the National Assembly to reconvene, and immediately commence impeachment proceedings against President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua.
A pro-democracy group, the United Action for Democracy, UAD, yesterday, called on the National Assembly to reconvene, and immediately commence impeachment proceedings against President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua.
Members of the group reasoned that with Yar'Adua in power for another three years, Nigeria is doomed to failure and calamity with the Niger Delta crisis escalating to a full blown war. Reading from a prepared text at a press briefing in Lagos, the UAD convener, Comrade Abiodun Aremu, described Yar'Adua as a lame duck president with no clear vision.
Aremu, however, said he was not surprised as Yar'Adua never wanted to be president, but rather forced into the exalted office by former President, Chief Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo.
UAD also wondered why instead of addressing with urgency the plight of Niger Deltans and the teachers currently on strike over better pay, Yar'Adua is soliciting military assistance from Britain, adding that the move can only harden the militants.
According to the group, 'We urge the National Assembly to reconvene immediately and commence impeachment proceedings against Yar'Adua for this suicide mission. What an irony, a lame duck president that is not bothered about addressing the plight of Nigerian teachers, legitimately demanding the implementation of the Teachers Salary Scale, TSS, is obsessed with negotiating arms to exterminate the youths in the Niger Delta Region!"
Explaining further, Aremu wondered why Yar'Adua thought that Britain can assist Nigeria in solving the Niger Delta problems when multinational oil companies from the West have consistently been disregarding established laws and conventions on environment and climate change.
He likened the move to the attempt by the US to position its African military command in Nigeria, adding that with the same speed it failed, the deal with the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown will soon be history.
'UAD is resolved to organise and mobilise Nigerians and join forces with allies in the labour and civil society coalitions, the people and groups in the Niger Delta, freedom-inclined groups and people all over the world to resist this latest interference in our sovereignty, ' Aremu stated.
The group also called for the immediate removal of the Osun State Police Commissioner, Mr. John Moronike, for the human rights abuses he allegedly commits daily in the state.