Insecurity: Falana wants public officials to be barred from foreign trips

Due to rising the security issues in the country, human right lawyer, Femi Falana has called for public officials to be barred from foreign trips until the insecurity challenges in the country are resolved.

Falana while presenting a paper on press freedom in Nigeria and the rule of law said the president and governors shouldn’t leave the county until there’s a solution to security issues in the country.

The lawyer, who attributed the root cause of insecurity to poverty argued that the problem can not be solved outside Nigeria.

He said: “It is high time President Buhari and all state governors who are abroad returned to the country to attend to the urgent crisis of insecurity,” he said.

“With the virtual take-over of the country by armed bandits, terrorists and kidnappers, the president and all top public officers should be barred by Nigerians from embarking on foreign private or official visits to other countries until further notice.

“It is common knowledge that the security challenges facing the nation include terrorism, kidnapping, armed robbery, human trafficking and extra-judicial killings. As the root cause of such violent crimes is traceable to the excruciating poverty in the land, a critical examination of the security challenges cannot be undertaken outside the nation’s neo-colonial capitalist political economy.”

Speaking on the role of the media, Falana said the constitution has charged journalists to hold public officers accountable.

He also advised journalists to avoid putting light on politicians’ certificate scandal, asking them to provide solutions to issues of poverty and underdevelopment.

“In Nigeria, no attempt has been made to repeal any of the repressive media laws while the national assembly has been trying frantically to censor the media and use the pending press council to gag the media,” 

“All elected public officers should be made to proffer solutions to the crisis of underdevelopment and stop the irrelevant debate on the educational qualification of any candidate.

“Since the 2019 elections have been concluded the duty imposed on the media is to ensure that political parties and elected officials are held accountable.

“To that extent, the media should ensure that the political parties are made to explain to the Nigerian people how they plan to address the crisis of underdevelopment that has reduced a richly endowed nation to a beggar taking questionable loans to pay salaries of public officers and service unproductive bureaucracy,” he said.

Falana also called for a review of the concept and understanding of the rule of law among politicians, The Cable reports.