“Buhari is monetising politics”- Femi Falana

Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Falana, has criticized All Progressives Congress presidential aspirant, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), for obtaining a loan of N27.5m to procure his party’s expression of interest and nomination form for the 2015 presidential election.

He noted that the action of the former head of state was indefensible, stressing that it amounted to monetisation of politics.

He said, “It is indefensible for Gen. Buhari to have obtained a loan facility of N27.5m just to obtain a form of intent to contest in the presidential election in 2015 under the All Progressives Congress.”

“Is he going to obtain another loan during his campaign, because in Nigeria, it costs billions of naira to run a presidential campaign?”

On the coverage of the 2015 election, the legal luminary advised journalists not to give undue advantage to any candidate, but should give all of them equal coverage, devoid of ethnic or religious colouration.

He also advised journalists to be wary of phony politicians who would want to play to the gallery, but should focus on issues.

He said, “Journalists must show more than a passing interest on how those aspirants want to manage the economy. The government must address mass illiteracy, corruption and poverty.”

Falana noted that the nation was facing security challenges such as kidnapping, armed robbery, terrorism, human trafficking because of the unemployment rate.

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria called on the government to wake up and fight the security challenges confronting the nation the same way the Ebola scourge was tackled.

“Government gave Ebola Virus Disease attention because it is no respecter of anybody. But government is not conscious of the security of the people because they have security guards protecting them,” he said.

Source: Punch