Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Chima Nweze has said that if the constitutional provisions dealing with disqualification for elective offices is properly utilised, the number of hoodlums vying for political offices in Nigeria would be reduced drastically
Justice Nweze stated this during the inaugural ceremony of Old Seminarians Association of Nigeria (OSAN) in Abuja.
Nweze while delivering a keynote address titled, ‘Age Quod Agis: the Route to National Cohesion and Integration’ said that the constitutional provision had already exposed sundry miscreants vying for political offices noting that enforcement was lacking.
He said Priests and other Christian organizations must stand up to the task of appointing credible leaders worthy of emulation in political offices so that Nigeria would regain her lost glory in the Comity of Nations
According to Justice Nweze Christians must no longer remain aloof and indifferent to corrupt leadership which have inflicted so much pain on the people which had also divided the people along ethnic, religious, political and ideological lines.
According to the Jurist, “the division came had come with serious suspicion, distrust, and hatred among the diverse citizens”
Nweze noted that efforts towards national integration as national interest and project in Nigeria was challenged by corruption, baseless party politics and worst of all, insecurity, and that teh citizens needed to think beyond primordia interests.
Instead, what was required of the citizens, was to think beyond those differences and focus on things that could propel the nation into maximising its potentials towards to greatness.
He noted that without love encapsulated in good neighbourliness being imbibed by the citizens, the different components that made up the country would persist as dividing factors .
He also called on the Nigerian Church to espouse what he said a theologian once called “the evangelisation of human structures”. which according to him, referred to a new approach which should confront the injustices ravaging the economic, social and political lives of the people.
According to him, “The question now is: how can the Nigerian Church achieve this without embarking on political activism
” As we noted elsewhere, political philosophers have identified corrupt political leadership as the ultimate albatross of political life in Nigeria”
This came just as the President of the Association (OSAN), Chief Chinedu Akubueze while congratulating members at the inaugural ceremony, admonished the Old Seminarians to continue to use their God given gift to affect lives positively and contribute their quota to nation development especially in the political scene.
According to him, “we are going to harness the potentials from this varied and various Nigerians from diverse parts of the country who are catholics and who are old seminarians to attempt at making some impact in the Scenerio that is presently playing out in the Nigerian Political and Social sphere”.
Also speaking at the occasion, human rights lawyer, Chief Femi Falana said that the security challenges facing the country had shown that the federal government lacked the capacity to police the country.
While lending his support for the the establishment of State and Local Government Police in the country in tackling the security challenges confronting the nation, Falana pointed out that the country needed 500,000 police personnel to be able to police the country effectively, whereas the position on ground was that no less than a million police personnel, well-equipped to man the security of that these needed to be well equipped.
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