L-R: Hon. Benedict Etanabene(middle) flanked by other members of the party while addressing newsmen on Monday
By Samuel Ogude
Member, representing Uvwie , Okpe and Sapele in Federal House of representatives, under the platform of Labour Party (LP), Hon. Benedict Etanabene said, he was not ready to join the wagon of decampees that are going to other parties in the country. Hon, Etanabene stated this today, Monday, while briefing newsmen in the Party’s Secretariat in Effurun in Uvwie Local Government Area Delta State.
He said, although, it is not wrong for any person to decamp but he or she should follow the provisions of the constitution by vacating the office he or she is elected to occupy unless where the party that person represents has crisis as to not been able to operate in its registered head office and where there is no legally recognized officers or leadership of such political party.
According to him, in the absence of these conditions, the decampee legislator shall vacate his or her seat as it doesn’t require any court pronouncement or speaker’s action of declaring vacant such seat, it is automatically activated. The federal lawmaker however said, if he decides to decamp, he must vacate his office as required by the constitution as he would obey the rules and regulations as set out by the constitution. He said, but again, due to his conscience, he could not decamp to the ruling party because it has not made the country a better place either.
The federal lawmaker said, he could not sacrifice the interest of the party for anything but would remain in the party as he has chosen until the party is no longer interested in fielding candidates then, it could offload him and then, he would contest in other political party. According to him, even when decamping is allowed, it is neither good for the credibility of such decampees nor the democratic system of governance, saying, he would not act as others do because it has become a trend.
His words:” The recent cross carpeting of politicians from one party to the other, has reduced the standard of credibility expected of such highly placed individuals in the society. It is morally and lawfully not good. Our democracy is in decline”.
The federal lawmaker condemned in strong terms a situation where there is no separation of powers in organs of government as that has led and still leads to the retardation of the growth and development of Nigeria as a country. According to him, in Nigeria, once any person is elected as President, such a person immediately begins the process of annexing the functions and powers of other organs of government, which, according to him, is not in best interest of any democratic system.
His words:” … usurpation of the functions of other organs of government retards development and growth. As blacks, we are certainly not psychological or mentally prepared for this kind of capitalist form of democracy. High time, we begin to design the kind of democracy that will work for our peculiarities”.
Hon. Etanabene said in democracy, free and fair elections express the will of the people as they give room for good leadership and therefore sued for the amendment of the electoral act to eliminate all the poor short comings to the 2023 general elections. His words:” Under democracy, the most important agency of government is that which is responsible for elections. They are the gate ways to good or bad governance. Where they organize bad elections, all sorts of funny persons can easily find their ways to government…”
Hon. Etanabene corrected the rumours in some quarters in Nigeria that Labour Party is in crisis. According to him, the issues in the party are that of disagreement on how to move the party forward. The federal lawmaker is strongly in support of opposition parties in Nigeria as they help to check mate the excesses of the ruling party. His words:” …the coming together of opposition parties to the ruling party is a welcome development. It further strengthens our democracy. I encourage meaningful Nigerians who are not satisfied with the current ruling leadership style of Nigeria to join any of the opposition parties of their choice for purposes to put pressure on government for better performance…”