The 2019 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has reacted to the travel ban placed on 50 prominent Nigerians by the Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a statement through his media office in Abuja on Sunday, the Waziri of Adamawa said that the ban, which relied on the Executive Order No. 6 recently signed by Buhari, was “most undemocratic”.
Atiku added that the Executive Order would encourage capital flight and another economic recession in the country.
While condemning financial and other forms of criminality, the presidential candidate said that going by Buhari’s antecedents, the travel ban was most likely aimed at muscling the opposition ahead of the 2019 polls.
He urged the Federal Government to subject itself to the rule of law at all times.
“We must be unequivocal in saying that we abhor any act of criminality, financially or otherwise, but the rule of law must be our guide at all times or society will descend into anarchy.
“Thus, we find it most undemocratic that in a nation governed by the rule of law, a President who swore an oath to abide by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, does this.
“If past events are to be the judge, these 50 individuals will conveniently be critics and opponents of the Buhari administration.
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“This is nothing short of intimidation ahead of the 2019 elections. This is what the Buhari administration did in Osun where they froze the accounts of the Adeleke family and then illegally and clandestinely paid N16.7bn to the Osun State Government to facilitate the daylight electoral robbery,” the statement read in part.
He added that the ban was a violation of the constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of movement and association.
He said those constitutional rights could not be denied any individual except by the express orders of a court of law, describing the resort to executive orders as “extrajudicial”.
“If the Buhari administration wants to curtail the rights of Nigerians, then it must go to court and obtain a court order. Anything short of this is unconstitutional and extrajudicial.
“This sudden dictatorial act brings to mind President Buhari’s comments for which he was condemned by the international community and by the generality of Nigerians.
“While delivering an address at the annual general conference of the Nigerian Bar Association on August 26, 2018, President Buhari has said ‘where national security and public interest are threatened or there is a likelihood of their being threatened, the individual rights of those allegedly responsible must take second place, in favour of the greater good of society.’
“That was not only a faulty interpretation of the constitution, the statement also betrays the dictatorial and authoritarian mindset of President Buhari because only he gets to decide who and what threatens national security.”
Atiku said that the ban was like bringing back the days of Decree Number Two of 1984 under Buhari’s military regime, which criminalised any truth inconvenient to the government.
He noted that the ban showed that Buhari was an ageing dictator that only pretended to have metamorphosed into into a “democrat”.
The statement further read, “Under the Buhari administration, Nigeria has witnessed an unprecedented capital flight out of the nation to the extent that we are not even listed amongst the top 10 recipients of Foreign Direct Investment in Africa in the latest ranking by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
“It is salient to note that we were number one under the last Peoples Democratic Party administration.
“Funnily enough, the Buhari administration was unable to stop Abdulrasheed Maina, their financier, from leaving the country after he was illegally brought back by them and reinstated to the federal service with double promotion.
“It is precisely this type of draconian orders that have chased investors away from Nigeria and it is precisely why Nigerians will chase this recession-friendly government away from power on February 16, 2019, so we can begin the job of Getting Nigeria Working Again.”