Sowore: CISLAC tackles Presidency over comment on 100, 000 Nigerians

by

Nicholas Kalu, Abuja

 

The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has tackled the Special Adviser to the President On Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, over comments in the media that the outrage over Omoyele Sowore’s re-arrest last week was from less than 100, 000 Nigerians.

Adesina, who was on Channels Televisions Sunrise Daily on Monday, reacting to a question that a lot of Nigerians seemed enraged over development had disagreed saying all the “noise” over the situation was coming from less than 100, 000 out of 198 million Nigerians.

Executive Director of CISLAC, Auwal Ibrahim Musa, reacting to this in a chat with The Nation, said that such a statement was unfortunate and should be withdrawn immediately and an apology made to Nigerians.

Musa said, “It is a very unfortunate situation because if the government does not care its citizens, then it shows how irresponsible they are. Every Nigerian should be of concern to Nigerians. Now if you say 100, 000, where did you even get the data?

Read Also; EFCC recovers N3.6bn, 10 houses from suspected looters in Ilorin

“In any case, are you saying 100, 000 people are not people. Are they not Nigerians? Public officers should be very careful what they say because it would haunt them in future. Because when you are saying 100, 000 do not matter, it means you are not even competent to be a public officer, because every Nigerian’s right must be protected. So far as our interests are not protected by the government, then there is a problem. This kind of careless statements by public officials would haunt them tomorrow. Tomorrow they may be victims of the same human rights abuses.

“So this thing would come back to every one of us if we keep quiet. So we must demand effective and responsible governance. We don’t need overzealous public officers. So what he said shows they don’t care about Nigerians. They don’t care about protecting anybody.

“If he says 100, 000 are not important. I think he should better withdraw that statement and apologize. Every single Nigerian matters. In other countries even an individual is important. So Adesina should as a matter of urgency withdraw that statement and apologize to Nigerians,” Musa said.