A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Jibrin Okutepa has said that the crises in Rivers and Kano states demonstrate the selfishness of Nigerian politicians, urging President Bola Tinubu to deal decisively with those generating political tensions to avert anarchy in the country.
In Rivers State, there have been calls for state of emergency following a crisis that erupted over the tenure of local government chairmen, vice chairmen and councillors.
Kano governor, Abba Yusuf Kabir’s decision to depose Aminu Ado-Bayero and re-install Muhammadu Sanusi II as Emir of Kano has created tensions in the state.
In an X post on Thursday, Okutepa said the raging political miasma and avoidable anarchy going on in Rivers State and Emirship tussle in Kano State and the alleged attempt being made to make law to deal with the office of Sultanate in Sokoto state are not good signs that Nigerian politicians are learning anything while in power.
“These politicians misused and abused their powers and positions wherever opportunities present itself to them. They are intolerant of opposition and divergent views and positions. Yet they claimed that they are democrats. I see most Nigerian politicians as political despots.”
Okutepa lamented that politicians have made the political space “unhygienic” and pocketed almost every institution established by the constitution to ensure sanity in the political space, including institutions with attributes of impartiality and purity of justice.
Noting that Nigerians were tired of the selfish interests of politicians, he urged the political actors to embark upon “urgent patriotic repentance” due to the level of lawlessness in society.
“The blame games ongoings of harsh reality should not have been done in civilised societies. There is hardly anyone in the present government that was not part and parcel of the governments gone by.
“They are the same set of people who have ruined this country on the basis of primordial partisan interests. Nigerians are bleeding daily in poverty, lack of social amenities, and terrible insecurities everywhere due to the absence of good governance occasioned by these same sets of Nigerian politicians.”
Decrying the proliferation of dangerous arms in the hands of non-state actors, Okutepa urged President Bola Tinubu to do something urgently to restore peace and order in the country.
The senior lawyer noted that the way and manners tensions are being politically generated everywhere in Nigeria due to primordial partisan interests need to be decisively dealt with if anarchy is to be averted.
“It is too early to play politics of 2027. 2027 is still far. Nigeria needs to exist before Nigerian politicians can govern it.
“No one invests in any economy where there are insecurities and an unpredictable justice system,” he said.
