Date Published: 03/01/11

Abike Erewa tasks Jonathan over Abba Ajji's stand on FOI Bill
*Wants Special Adviser sacked

President Goodluck Jonathan has been challenged to denounce the declaration of his Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters Sen. Abba Ajji that the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill will not be assented to by the president should it be passed by the Senate.

Reacting to the Abba Ajji open opposition to the bill yesterday, the House Of Representative’s Committee Chairman on Diaspora, Hon. Abike Dabiri- Erewa said the president should sack Abba Ajji immediately and denounce the statement failure of which will make Nigerians conclude that the Special Adviser was speaking the mind of the President concerning the bill.

The Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters had last Monday in Maiduguri revealed that should the Senate pass the Freedom Of Information bill, and eventually forward it  to the president for his assent, he will prevail on the president not to assent to the bill because it is against the constitution.

Revealing that he led the opposition against the passage of the bill in the National Assembly as a serving senator during the tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Abba Ajji said the bill is against the constitution and public officers including the president who is under the oath of secrecy contained in the constitution which the FOI bill is trying to oust.

The Special Adviser, though optimistic that the Senate will not toe the line of the House of Representatives by passing the bill however declared his readiness to fight to a standstill and ensure that the president does not assent to the bill should the Senate pass it.

Berating the former Senator for his pronouncement on the bill, Hon. Abike Erewa said Nigeria has now known those who her enemies are, especially as the passage of the controversial bill is concerned even as she urged the president to speak out on the issue immediately as his refusal to do so will mean that he shares the sentiment of his Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters adding that it is shameful that a former Senator admitted that he worked against the passage of the FOI bill before and will continue to do so.

Hon. Abike said she has now been vindicated over her insistence that  the forces working against the passage of the bill are outside of the National Assembly declaring that the stand of the Special adviser is retrogressive, undemocratic, and an insult to Nigerians whom President Jonathan seeks to lead for another four years with bad advisers like Abba Ajji who himself needs an adviser.

While insisting that President Jonathan should denounce the Abba Ajji outburst, failure of which would mean the Special Adviser was echoing his master’s voice, the influential member of the House Of Representatives advised further that “if not the president should either sack Abba Ajji or denounce his statement or do both” as she also urged Nigerians to rise up against their enemies as identified in people like Abba Ajji.

“Several countries including Africa have passed the FOI bill and are better off for it. What is our problem, why must we continue to allow the Abba Ajjis hold us to ransom” Erewa queried.