Oshiomhole condemns calls for military takeover by legal luminary, Clarke

A former National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole has condemned the call by a legal luminary, Roberts Clarke for a military takeover of government because of rising insecurity in the country.

Oshiomhole described Clarke’s call as “irresponsible”, stressing that never will an unelected leaders rule the country again as the world over has chosen democracy as the best form of government.

The former Edo Governor bared his mind in Abuja on Friday while hosting the leadership of the Law Students Association of Nigeria (LAWSON), who came to invite him to their forthcoming National Conference on Rule of Law.

Clarke, while appearing on a national television recently, called for a military intervention in governance in order to fix the country’s festering security challenges and to carry out restructuring of the country.

But Oshiomhole described the call as unlawful, saying even globally, military rule is no longer fashionable and acceptable.

He said: “I watched on a national television one of your very senior colleagues, Chief Robert Clarke, I was shocked when I saw him calling on the President to handover to the military, I thought that was the height of irresponsibility, giving his knowledge, giving his age and a very senior member of the bar and what is it that he wanted? He wants a military that will restructure Nigeria. It is again for me senseless because the structure as it is today, who put it in place? Who overthrew the parliamentary system?

“The parliamentary system was overthrown by the Nigerian military, that is on record. Who created 12 states from the four regions by decree? It was the military. The current 36 states and FCT who created it by military decree? It was the military. How can anybody who has lived through and who is familiar with our journey as a nation think that the solution to our problems as a nation is to handover to the military? I thought, talking about the rule of law that is treason.

“You know we have freedom of speech but it does not include the freedom to canvass unlawful means to effect a change. When you canvas unlawful means, then you should be arraigned before a court of law and dealt with according to the law. Ignorance is not even an excuse in law, not talk of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.”

Oshiomhole, who was removed from office in a controversial manner as chairman of the ruling party, further said: “I think that even in our moment of distress and regardless of what anybody thinks, the world is resolved and Nigeria is part of it, that never again shall we be govern by an unelected government, never, we don’t want unelected Angels.”

The Labour Leader argued further that the first thing that suffers under the military is the rule of law, adding that for anyone who is familiar with the military system like Clarke calling for return of the military must tender an apology to Nigerians.

He therefore, called on Nigerians to have faith in the country, in spite of the challenges facing the country, insisting that: “he won’t give up on Nigeria. We all must not give up”.
On the increasing agitation for secession, Oshiomhole termed the agitators as: “Poor students of history.”

According to him, “I am also not agreeing with those who think of dis-membering Nigeria. They say let everybody go his way. Nigeria is not a reality. Those ones are poor students of history.

“Why is Europe spending so much time forming the European Union to create a larger market? Recently, we signed the African Trade Agreement so that Nigeria can access a bigger market. We already have a local market of 200 million. If we can keep it flourishing and increase the purchasing power of the citizens, we already have a huge market. That should be an asset. That diversity should be an asset.”

Earlier, Leader of the Law Students, Blessing Agbomhere said the association resolved to have the APC chieftain as their guest speaker at a National Conference on Rule of Law due to his antecedents both in and out of government.