CHINA LOAN DEAL: NBA Carpets Fayose, Describes Action Inconsequential

Ayodele Fayose

REACTIONS have continued to trail the actions taken by the Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose over the China loan deal stroke by President Mohammadu Buhari during his visit to the Peoples Republic of China, particularly from the legal minds.

Fayose had allegedly written a letter to the President  Xi Jinping of China seeking to scuttle the business deal on account of the debt implications and other reasons best known to him claiming that he was speaking the minds of Nigerians as a major stakeholder in the project Nigeria and a governor of one of the federating units making up Nigeria as reported by Pinnacle InfoGallery BLOG on Saturday 16, 2016.

Reacting to Fayose’s letter, a former Chairman of Ikeja Branch of Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Mr Onyekachi Ubani, succinctly described the letter as of no consequence and aimed at self-relevance.

“The letter by Fayose is similar to a situation of bringing a motion for a court injunction for a completed act. This letter is a mere irritation especially coming from a sitting governor; I will urge Nigerians and especially journalists to regard his letter as nothing, but a mere irritation.

“Negotiations are already concluded and the Chinese government is willing to release funds to Nigeria. Although, it is very disheartening that such a letter is coming from one of our governors, but I think it serves no purpose,” he told NAN.

Similarly, the Ikeja Branch Chairman of NBA, Mr Yinka Farobi, described the letter as an act of gross ignorance by the governor without knowing his limits under the law, and therefore tantamount to  “over stepping of one’s boundaries” adding that Nigerians should be supportive of the good policies of the President in moving the nation forward.

“Fayose was elected as a state governor and not as the president of Nigeria. His letter is clearly out of the purview of his powers and I seriously condemn it,” he said.

Furthermore, in a statement made to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, the Ikorodu NBA Branch Chairman, Mr Dotun Adetunji, described the letter as a show of rascality stating that the governor was taking advantage of immunity to be behaving contrary to conventional norms.

“Although there is a provision for immunity for a sitting governor, there must also be a limit on the activities of a leader. There are 36 states in the federation and out of these states, only one governor has courage to write to a foreign authority, urging it to refuse funds to its federal government. To my mind, such action is really reprehensible and should be discouraged.

“There is no problem with being an opposition, but If you want to be an opposition, you conduct such opposition in a reasonable manner. We must be careful as Nigerians for whatever we do today will be recorded as our history tomorrow”, he said.

Other lawyers interviewed described the governor’s actions as irresponsibility and immunity against impunities, and consequently urged for the review of the immunity clause in Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to reduce abuse.