Why Southern leaders slammed N50bn suit against Buhari — Ezeife

The group of elder statesmen and leaders of socio-cultural platforms in Southern Nigeria, who filed a suit against President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday said they were in court to salvage Nigeria.

They had instituted a N50 billion suit against the President at the Abuja division of the Federal High Court for alleged lopsided appointments of his administration.

Filed through a consortium of lawyers, they alleged among other things that since the inception of  Buhari’s administration in 2015, the President in his appointments had contravened the provisions of the 1999 Constitution and Federal Character Principle.

One of the plaintiffs in the suit and first civilian Governor of Anambra state, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, said their decision to go to court was not only to win, but to retrieve Nigeria from the present lawlessness of the leadership.

Speaking in a telephone interview, Ezeife said though it might look late, it was better late than never, adding that their action was a positive step.“That is what is called democracy,” he said.

On what they want from the suit, he said: “A reversal of the situation and obedience to the constitution. The constitution provides for federal character, but the present government is doing nepotism only. If it is not nepotism, it is religious bigotry. So the present government is not obeying the constitution of the land and we want them  to be obeying the constitution.

“I can understand that it been too long to now bring a suit, but we have been complaining and we are saying that Nigerians should see what is happening. It is not just going to court to win. Maybe it is too late, maybe the end is too near. We don’t know. We want to retrieve Nigeria. We have something in the constitution called federal  character, but now, there is nothing like federal character, whether it is by appointment or project, and there is the National Assembly which has failed to live up to responsibilities,” he said. (Daily Sun)