A former lawmaker representing Kaduna Central at the National Assembly, Shehu Sani, has said that the charges filed against the Publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, by President Muhammadu Buhari government contradict the philosophy of progressivism being championed by the governing All Progressives Congress (APC).
Sani said that the country’s democracy is being hampered by the growing culture of intolerance to opposing opinions.
According to the APC chieftain, the President’s desire to build and leave behind an anti-corruption legacy should not be cited in the “Human rights graveyard.”
Sani, however, appealed to President Buhari to drop the charges of money laundering and treasonable felony filed against Sowore.
“Sowore’s trial is unnecessary and uncalled for. It would only further stain the human rights record of this administration and diminish and dent the moral standing of our country,” Sani was quoted as saying by the Nation.
“There is a climate of fear, intimidation, and intolerance in the country and this contradicts the philosophy of progressivism the ruling establishment purports. The nation’s democracy is imperiled by a growing state culture of intolerance of dissent and opposing opinions.
“The President’s desire to build and leave behind an anti-corruption legacy and tower should not be cited in the Human rights graveyard. If the ruling establishment is confident of its moral standing and support base, it should defeat Sowore with superior ideas and not persecute him.
“Sowore’s charges amount to electrocution of freedom. The Democratic credentials of any elected Government is not simply about the legitimacy of its mandate, but about the degree of its tolerance to dissent and its compliance with the fundamental principles of freedom.
“I appeal to the Federal Government to drop the charges filed against Sowore. Our Democracy is becoming inhabitable and inhospitable to its ideal content. When a state equates dissent to disloyalty, it progressively decays under the weight of its courtiers.”
