Human Rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has expressed displeasure over state of affairs in the nation, stressing that the country is going through a lot of crisis despite the promise of the present administration to bring change to the country since assuming office nine months ago.
The legal activist also frowned on attempts by the Federal Government to foist more pains on Nigerians through the 45 per cent increase in electricity tariff, and insisted that government has not recovered a sum of $66.5 billion it is being owed by the banks, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and others.
He said the country is yet to identify the much-needed change and therefore called on civil organisations such Committee for Human Right Defence (CDHR) to sound a note of warning to the regime to take the governance of the country seriously.
Falana who gave the charge at the 2016 National Conference Meeting of CDHR with the theme ‘Challenges of Protecting the Human Rights of Nigerians in a Democracy’ in Lagos yesterday said if after nine months the administration assumed office, the country is yet to experience any evidence of change, then there are problems.
He frowned at the import-orientated nature of the economy which he said it makes possible to bring in everything from overseas, stressing that businessmen who were trading abroad 10 months ago can no longer transact businesses outside the shores of the country because of importation. “I’m happy that the president Buhari has said they are not going to devalue the naira, but devaluation has already taken place”, he added.
Falana called on the leadership of CDHR to join in the struggle with all civil society organisations to save the naira, adding that the currency of the country must be saved. “Last week, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) went to the street to send a note of warning that there is no way you can justify increase in tariff by 45 per cent; the battle is not over yet.”
According to him, “The NLC president informed me that what happened during the week was just a warning and until the government reverses that decision to increase tariffs, in the midst of darkness, the struggle will continue.
“While that is going on and I want to sent a copy of my letter to the Minister of Finance during the week because they say they want to take a loan of $3.5 billion from the World Bank and Africa Development Bank. The loan from the World Bank will get the endorsement of the IMF and what IMF will do is to say sack more workers, so that the running of government can be manageable. Withdraw any service at all, any money given to the education and health other sectors. You know those are the usual conditionalities.
“What I did during the week was to write to the Minister of Finance stressing that there is no basis for taking a loan, because this government is owed $66.5 billion by the banks, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and others. In 2006, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Charles Soludo, went to the foreign reserves and collected $7 billion which he gave to 14 banks and $500 million per bank. Till now, nobody has asked them (banks) to pay back the money.
“Secondly, in 2008, the CBN Governor then Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, gave the same banks $4billion for bailout which brings the total to $11 billion since then nobody has asked the banks to pay back. Business persons took a loan of N5.7 trillion from the government. They have only paid back about N300 billion. So what is owned the government today N5.4 trillion that is $25 billion. The government national extractive transparency initiative (NEITI) wrote to me on the bases of enquiry that NNPC and oil companies are owing the country N21.1 billion which bring the total to N66.5 trillion. Then I asked the government, why do they want to punish the public, when they are being owed this amount?”
“I want CDHR to help the government to collect the money, so that they will not continue to oppress the public. Since the minister has not acknowledged the letter, these figures are from them so there is no way they can challenge your figure. As at today, Nigeria owns $64 billion. Yet when we paid $12 billion to the London Parish Club in 2005, Prof. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, said we should rejoice because we will never borrow again. Between then and now, we have taken as much as $64 billion; under President Goodluck Jonathan administration the country took a loan of $21 billion; the economy was then managed by Iweala.”
