Resign Or Forget Emergency Powers, Group Tells President Buhari

President Buhari's proposed bill for emergency economic powers keeps drawing intense condemnation from across the federation. The latest is from the Akwa Ibom vanguard, a socio-political group led by Senator Anietie Okon, a distinguished senator in the 4th assembly and political leader of Itu Local Government.

The group, in a press conference held in Uyo on Thursday called on the President to honorably resign from power if he finds that he can no longer work within the confines of the present constitution of the federal republic.

A release made available to the press at the conference reads;

"Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. It is our firm position that if President Buhari cannot operate within the confines of the Constitution which he swore to respect and uphold; the honourable thing for him to do is to resign".

Senator Okon stressed that the present constitution provides the President with sufficient powers to govern the nation and steer it out of the economic malaise it finds itself in. drawing from a draft of the proposed bill, he expressed disbelief that the president truly needed emergency powers to achieve some of the things the federal government has set forth as grounds for the bill. 

He described the bill as a cause for grave concern.

"The grant of emergency economic powers to President Muhammadu Buhari in addition to the enormous powers already wielded by him, will most certainly turn him into a dictator and make nonsense of our democracy and statehood".

In his contribution, the Honourable member representing Itu/Ibiono Ibom federal constituency at the House of Representatives, Dr Henry Archibong assured that the members of the national assembly are united in opposition to that bill.

"We are waiting for the bill. I wouldn't speak for fellow National assembly members but I want to believe that this kind of bill will not pass. When it comes to matters that involve Nigeria, we don't make decisions based on party lines." He said, adding;

"Members of APC in the national assembly are not happy with this administration. We encourage Nigerians to rise up and resist this bill."

Honorable Archibong brought to light the fact that the national assembly had approved over 6Trillion Naira for the presidency to access as budgetary allocation and not up to 30 % of it has been utilized. 500billion Naira was also approved for poverty alleviation programmes and not even 30 % of the amount has been spent yet.

"Why then would the president want emergency economic powers? What happened to moneys repatriated from overseas? What happened to the so-called recovered stolen loot" Archibong queried.

"While the nation awaits the full details of the so called Emergency Powers, our reaction to this issue is an exercise in service of nation building propelled by patriotic concerns." The group stated.