TRUTH SUFFERS AGAIN IN NIGERIA

5th March 2010

TRUTH SUFFERS AGAIN IN NIGERIA

Once again truth is being sacrificed in this country. Some Nigerians have come out to show that propriety should not be contemplated. For Dora Akunyili, the Minister for Information and Communication, daring to question the impropriety of the EXCOF taciturnity in this moment of truth, unpatriotic Nigerians are calling for her head.

Here is a minister of information who had no and still do not have information concerning the President. Imagine the mouthpiece of the government getting wind of the President’s arrival from Saudi Arabia on CNN. We as a people should feel embarrassed by this impunity.

Nigerians should wake up and stop whipping up parochial sentiments. Akunyili is not part of those who frame the constitution. She should not be blame for the poor handling of the Yar’Adua mystery. If those close to the President have been sincere to Nigerians all this noise would not have arisen.

If the minister committed a crime by suggesting what is constitutional then the framers of the constitution committed the worse crime by contemplating sections 144 and 145 as it were.

When the minister presented a memo to discuss the health status of the president, it was view as disloyalty to the man who appointed her. It is instructive for Nigerians to know that a minister’s loyalty is to the country and not to Yar’Adua as a person.

The minister of Information and Communication deserves commendation and not condemnation for elevating the presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Nigerians should come to terms with the fact that the Founding Fathers of this country dared to be ‘maladjusted’ in the eyes of the colonialist to get us breathe the air of independence. If we do not stand up for the truth as Akunyili has demonstrated we will regret it someday.

We cannot afford to linger in covertness on issues that must be critically addressed. Silence is a covert threat to this country and we need more of the Akunyilis in governance who will employ refined obstinacy to put the country on the right track.

The agitations for the removal of the minister, justifying that her statements are capable of heating up the polity, is inexcusable and unacceptable. We therefore condemn in totality the calls for the removal of the minister.

We make bold to say that Akunyili’s memo and subsequent statements are a moral victory for this country and for Nigeria to survive and be in the moral majority we should learn to accept the truth no matter its bitterness.

Shamaki G. Peter

National Advisory Council: Dr. Bala Takaya, Prof. Sam Egwu. Trustees: Hauwa Shekarau, Rev. Mathias Ndian, Dr. Ayodele Jegede. Christine Olaniyan, Director: Shamaki Gad Peter

Director