Human Rights Lawyer, Femi Falana, said at the weekend that the country’s political space has been abandoned to those he called “political buccaneers and economic vampires.”
He and other activists and ex-students’ leaders said while they struggled hard to chase away military dictatorship and entrench civilian government, they failed to participate in the process of choosing who leads the country.
They spoke at the virtual 20th Anti-Corruption Situation Room (ACSR) themed: “Harnessing the potentials of students’ unionism and activists towards the promotion of good governance, transparency, and accountability in Nigeria” organised by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) and its partners.
Falana, who moderated the discussion with other panelists including Aminu Mahmud, Lanre Arogundada, Ene Obi, Innocent Chukwuma, Omoyele Sowore, all former students’ leaders, said after the military dictators were chased out, many student leaders and activists left the scene, thereby paving the way for criminally minded individuals to take over.
He noted that by 1999 when Nigeria returned to democracy, activists and student leaders did not take the question of contesting for elections seriously.
He said: “The task ahead of us is by far much more herculean than it was in 1999.
“But before 1999, we never really took the question of contesting the political space very seriously.
“Because if we had done that, with a benefit of hindsight now, that was the best opportunity for us in terms of the fact that people have seen us coming from the battlefield and we are ahead of others.”
He however said; “genuine progressive forces” have risen up to examine “why we abandoned the country to political buccaneers and economic vampires.
“I was just studying the situation and discovered that one of them whose son has said he would run in 2023 has been in the race to become the President of Nigeria since 1992.
“Another one was a Senator under Babangida and also wants to become the President now,” he added.
Another activist and President, Public Interest Lawyers League, Mahmud Aminu, said the civil society should stop agonising but rather organise and coalesce into a big platform to take over the country.
