By Samuel Ogenyi
The immediate past National legal Adviser of the People’s Democratic Party, Barr. Emmanuel Enoidem has described the recent appointment of Dr. Doyin Salami as the Chief Economic adviser to the President Muhammadu Buhari as a clear case of cluelessness on the part of the APC-led administration.
Salami’s appointment was announced last week, by the Adviser to the president on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, for the first time since the inception of president Buhari’s administration in 2015
Speaking with newsmen yesterday in Uyo, the PDP Ex-legal Adviser maintained that only a clueless government would run its administration for four years without an Economic Adviser.
“It is unimaginable that somebody would run a government for four years without an economic team or adviser.
“The first time the president has bothered to appoint an economic adviser was last week, in six and half years of his government? It is laughable that you are not an economist, your educational background is even challenging, yet you don’t want to bring in people that know to work with you, that is why we fail as a country under the leadership of president Buhari.” Enoidem said.
The ex PDP NEC member who is eyeing the Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District seat also berated the National Assembly for proposing the inclusion of direct primaries in the Electoral Act, describing the decision as “nonsensical” in the 21st century.
He argued that imposing a direct primary on all the political parties in Nigeria with an astronomic population would be the most ridiculous and untenable thing, adding that it would be like returning the electoral process to the stone age of the 15th century.
He maintained that the cost of managing the process of direct primary would be too high adding that an aspirant would be compelled to undergo two major general elections, the election that would produce him as a candidate of the party and another for the general election.
“For any person to think of returning direct primaries as a way of nominating a candidate in a country that has over 200million is a big mistake!
“It is just a return of electoral process to stone age of the 15th BC. It is nothing but a clear invitation to confusion and crises in the 21st century. It is not tenable in Nigeria with a bourgeoning population? If you look back on 2018, this same APC preaching direct primaries, there was no one person who won the election that was given a ticket by the party, that is what they want to subject Nigeria to now.
“Another thing is that the cost of managing that process is too high, it means subjecting a candidate to two general elections. That is election that produces him as the candidate of the party and another for a general election. For instance, Akwa Ibom that has upto 368 wards, you have to conduct election in all the wards, you are just killing the process and the person who genuinely wants to contest but does not have money. Infact it is a way of killing democracy.
“For me it is most nonsensical for the National Assembly to come up with such a proposal in the 21st century. It was not supported by fact, not supported by history not by times.” He stated.
He however commended the office of the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN for dissuading president Buhari from in signing the bill citing insecurity in the country as one of the reasons.
“I must give it to the office of the Attorney general of the federation. This is the first time I’m commending that office. The reason he gave why the president should not sign the electoral act because of the direct primaries was because of insecurity in the country.” He said.
