The Peoples Advocates (TPA) is an association and assembly of public interest lawyers and citizens of Nigeria who are interested in the rights of peoples globally. We are part of the Public Interest Lawyering Network in West Africa, Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Rivers State Network of Non-Governmental Organizations, CSO I-Report Platform/CIEPD Election Situation Room, Network of Police Reform in Nigeria, Transition Monitoring Group, Civic Space Watch Cluster etc.

One of the significant lessons from May 29 in the history of Nigeria is that POWER IS TRANSIENT and as such citizens who have been given the mandate to serve the people (whether legitimately or not) should number their days by making the best use of every second, minute, hour, days, months and years for the common-good of the people who directly or indirectly employed them to serve.

The primary responsibility of government is to ensure the security and welfare of the citizens; it is on this responsibility that we measure the success or failure of any government.

It is advisable for every administration to have a strategic plan that aligns with set national plan or vision of the nation and where the nation or state has no plan, for the new administration to work with true representatives of

the people to set up a plan for the security, welfare, growth and development of the people and the State.

STREET ANALYSIS of the Buhari Administration since 2015 till date would reveal that his government had no clear economic and security plan to deal with the menace of Boko Haram, Bandits, Kidnappers and other evil forces against the system and the people neither did his administration have an economic plan. Rather, they were only interested in wrestling power from the Peoples Democratic Party and satisfying their political cronies, not the peoples of Nigeria.

Hence, in the wake of his administration, insecurity increased with the farmer herdsmen crisis in the north, north-central, west, south-east, south- south region of Nigeria, kidnap of school children and vulnerable people in the north (recall the Kaduna-rail Kidnap), bandit attacks in Southern Kaduna targeted at the Christians in the region etc

Nigerians also suffered hunger as the nation suffered inflation and spike in the prices of goods and services. The price of major energy; fuel, gas, diesel, kerosene, electricity suffered a 50-100% increase or more, thereby affecting transportation and cost of production. The ill-fated Naira-Policy further exacerbated the sufferings of Nigerians.

The ENDSARS SAGA and TWITTER BAN revealed the human rights situation in Nigeria, where the said government has consistently shown lack of value of human lives as the government’s army and police opened fire on innocent and harmless protesters (citizens of The Federal Republic of Nigeria)

The Ban on Twitter and clampdown on peaceful protest further reveals the nature of civic space and repression citizens participation and engagement.

On matters of election and the entire process of transition of power, one would have been eager to give a pass mark at the new Electoral Act and subsequent INEC Guideline, however, the manipulation of the process by politicians and INEC officials discredited the celebrated and supposedly messianic Electoral Act. Again the hopes of the people to have free, fair and credible elections were dashed. We pray the courts will redeem the hopes of the people.

On the decentralization of Power (electricity generation and distribution) to the states, one can give the Buhari administration a pass mark.

On the encouragement and support for the new Dangote Refinery, that will definitely impact positively on the economy of the nation in the long run,we also give this administration a pass mark.

Though watered down, the assent to the Petroleum Industry Act has made NNPC Limited more business minded and useful to the Nigerian people as we see the effect in the downstream sector in the acquisition of petrol stations and the availability of the product, thereby stabilizing the price of the fossil products.

On Agriculture and food supplies, Nigerians still face the problem of low agricultural produce and there is need for the new administration to put more effort in this regard to ensure increased availability of agricultural produce in order to moderate the price and reduce hunger.

In Rivers State, the most despotic administration of former Governor Ezebunwo, Nyesom Wike has done well on matters of road infrastructure, but woefully failed on human capital development, economy of the state and employment. We are happy to say goodbye to the former Governor whose reign was very undemocratic.

The Peoples Advocates (TPA) urge the new administration to put Nigerians First in all its dealings, policies, plans, strategy etc

Democracy is a government for the people and as such, the temptation of satisfying political cronies over the good of the peoples of Nigeria should be suppressed and terminated.

The new administration must look at the foreign policy and outlook of this nation in the eyes of the International Community and see to it that we gain dignity and respect in the international space.

It is apparent that for development to thrive, we must have security in place, hence the need for this new administration to be ruthless with terrorists, kidnappers, armed robbers, bandits etc.

Revamping the economy of this nation must be the core focus of this new administration because the debt to budget ratio is alarming, at a debt rate of over NGN 46 trillion and a budget of NGN 21.8 trillion.

TPA urges the new administration (legitimate or illegitimate), to rise above politics and face the economic challenges of this nation squarely in order to better the livelihood of the peoples of Nigeria for whom you asked to govern.

We all must stand up to defend the civic space and our democracy by every legal means possible.

THE PEOPLES ADVOCATE

……………………………………

COURAGE  NSIRIMOVU ESQ. COORDINATOR (THE PEOPLES ADVOCATES)