Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, on Monday said Nigeria has never been badly governed as currently being done.
He alleged that the Federal Government is currently tagging opposition members security risk and seizing their passports.
Wike spoke at the opening of the 61st Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association in Port Harcourt.
He said, “Never in our political history has Nigeria been so badly governed and denied of good governance with the Federal Government woefully failing in its basic duties to provide for the wellbeing and security of its own citizens as we have experienced in the last six years.
“The invasion on personal liberty has been brazen and indiscriminate, such that even judges of the superior courts, including Supreme Court justices, have in the recent past been victims of midnight assaults on their premises and subjection to unlawful arrests and imprisonments.
“Lately, the new devious trend is to tag security risks to innocent Nigerians and opposition elements and use the Immigration Authority to seize their international passports without a prior court order.”
He also faulted the Federal Government’s Executive Order 10, saying there is the need for a judicial interpretation.
He said there was the need to seek judicial interpretation of the Executive Order 10 because, in itself, it is an oppressive erosion of the powers and autonomy of the sub-national governments to administer their own judicial budgets in line with prevailing economic indices.
The governor said, “It is for similar reasons of strengthening fiscal federalism that we are in court to determine the proper authority, under our Constitution for imposing and collecting the Value Added Tax in our country.
“These are very nationally sensitive issues and Nigerians are eagerly waiting for the final outcome of the judicial process.
“We therefore wonder why the Supreme Court is not giving accelerated hearing to these matters and respectfully request that this should be done in the national interest.”
