Foremost Civil Rights Advocacy Body, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has described last week Thursday, official visit to Imo State by President Muhammadu Buhari as a missed opportunity for the government of Imo State to physically showcase the clear infrastructural imbalances and the deliberate denial of national assets to Imo State by successive Federal administrations.
Similarly, the president’s visit has been described as a mere political jamboree by Governor Hope Uzodinma who it would seem was much more concerned with burnishing his waning public image than ensuring sustainable goals for the collective benefits of Imo State and the good people of Imo State.
HURIWA said president Buhari also missed an opportunity to showcase himself as a statesman and not a tribal leader by refusing to make impactful statements and announcing significant decisions such as the granting of pardon to the detained leader of prescribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the de-proscription of IPOB and the release unconditionally of the hundreds of Igbo Youth clamped into different detention facilities only for belonging to the unarmed IPOB.
“That President Buhari wasted tax payer’s fuel to fly the Presidential Jet to Imo State only to commission non- enduring and white elephant projects such as gutter which even a local council Chairman would have delegated his Personal Assistant to Commission, shows that the visit was merely a political Jamboree.
“Why did the President not made to take a vehicular ride from Owerri to Okigwe so he can see first-hand the deep-seated marginalization and infrastructural imbalances that Imo and South-East have faced since the end of the Civil War?”
“Why did the governor not demand the sitting of major national institutions that have the potentials to industrialize Imo State? Why did the President not address the credible reports of extralegal killings of citizens by armed security forces in Imo State? The Presidential visit has no benefit to Imo State.”
According to a statement signed by the National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA also carpeted the Federal government for making false allegations that the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) stockpiled weapons all across Nigeria.
The Rights group described the statement by Garba Shehu the President’s garrulous spokesman as reckless, irrational, irresponsible and meaningless just as the Rights group has challenged the President to show empirical proofs to justify the sensational allegations which amount to spreading fake news by the government.
HURIWA recalled that a few days back the Presidency says the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has amassed a stockpile of weapons, bombs across the country.
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