Senior Advocate of Nigeria Jibrin Samuel Okutepa has alleged that nearly all Nigerian politicians, irrespective of party affiliation, share a common trait of knowingly violating the constitution and their own party manifestos.
“There is hardly any Nigerian politician who does not knowingly breach the Nigerian constitution or the manifestos of their political parties,” Okutepa stated. He argued that the nation’s problems stem not from the political parties themselves, but from the actions of those operating within them.
Okutepa pointed to the recent wave of defections by Labour Party legislators to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as a glaring example of unconstitutional behavior. He asserted that there is no real “division” within the Labour Party that would justify such decampment under the law.
“Yet these law breakers elected on the platform of a political party, Labour Party, which should be different from the parties that people accused of putting us in the mess we are in, are now behaving the same ways others have behaved before,” Okutepa lamented.
The senior lawyer criticized the normalization of abnormalities and breaches of law in Nigerian governance. He contended that political parties lack clear ideologies, and even when manifestos exist, party leaders routinely disregard them.
“The only ideologies inherent in all Nigerian political parties are ideologies of how to corner national resources and use it to the detriment of the greatest happiness of the greatest number of Nigerians,” Okutepa claimed. “It is sad that our politics is not rooted in the development of the nation.”
Okutepa also took aim at those responsible for upholding the constitution, accusing them of turning a blind eye to infractions. “There is indiscipline in our democratic journeys. People just do what they like and still get away with it,” he said, questioning what reasons “these law breakers still have to remain in parliament.”
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