The Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has criticised the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, saying he has not been running the country well with good policies and measures.
Speaking to journalists on the state of the nation at the Bar Centre on Wednesday, the NBA Chairman, Mr. Monday Ubani, said in spite of the state of emergency declared by the president in some parts of the country, insecurity, among other crimes like killings, violence, robbery, bombing and mass murder have remained the order of the day, adding that the persistence of such problems showed something is not being done rightly.
“We said it from the beginning when this emergency was declared that the government was only grandstanding. Today, we are not happy that the government is not winning the war.
“If anything, our collective wealth is being squandered on the so-called fight against terrorism,” ubani said.
Ubani absolved no level of government of blame as he pointed out that governments at all levels were guilty, as the people were not feeling the impact of governance despite huge allocations collected by three tiers of government every month.
“We demand a reversal for the sake of this country and for our generations unborn. The people have a role to play by understanding what is going on in the first place and demanding a change like other countries are presently doing,” he said.
Ubani also spoke on the lingering strike by the university lecturers, calling on the federal government to save Nigerians from undue embarrassment by honouring its agreement with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) immediately and end the strike.
He said the fact that the strike in the universities had kept students at home for many weeks is a blow to the education system “which has deteriorated so much that no Nigerian university is currently listed in the top 100 universities in the world.”
Ubani also took a swipe at the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Fianace, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, for saying that government cannot afford the money demanded by ASUU for the revitalisation of the universities.
“While they said they have no money to rescue our educational sector, they are busy buying another two jets to add to the fleets of jets already owned by the presidency, organising jamboree of high class women in Abuja where millions were squandered by the wife of the president, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, spent N1 trillion on legislators in the past eight years and N3 trillion on non-existent fuel subsidies and N10 billion annually to maintain the jets in the presidential fleet.”
“We are confused with the priorities of this government” he said, advising the government to see education as the bedrock of national development.
