The Arewa Youths Consultative Forum (AYCF) has berated senior lawyer, Chief Afe Babalola over his recent call for an interim government to be set up in Nigeria.
The National President of the AYCF, Yerima Shettima said such a call is not only undemocratic but is coming at the wrong time.
He added that those making and supporting such calls don’t have the best interest of Nigeria at heart and should be totally ignored.
The AYCF President said while it is agreeable that Nigeria can be better than what is currently obtainable, there is no provision for an interim government in the country’s constitution and a lawyer and person of Babalola’s standing should of course know that if not for age that may be telling on him.
The submission comes as a reaction to the submission by Chief Babalola recently that President Muhammadu Buhari should postpone the 2023 general elections and set up an interim government.
Babalola said the interim government should be in place for six months after the expiration of President Buhari’s tenure and should draft a new constitution that is people-oriented to replace the current 1999 constitution that is currently operational in Nigeria.
According to the legal luminary, the step will give the opportunity to correct some of the challenges such as insecurity and poor economy which Nigeria is battling with.
Reacting, Shettima told Daily Post that; “The time to call for the President to resign is over because we have less than one year before the elections begin, we are already at the peak of campaigns. So anybody talking about an interim government or that the President should resign does not mean well for the country at this critical period.
“Those are calls that should have happened long before now and not when the president is approaching the end of his tenure. All we need to do now is to use the little opportunity we have to maintain our democracy and ensure that we avoid any unnecessary panic or give room to the enemies of this country to strike us.
“This critical period is a time for us to reflect and start thinking of those we fill can come on board to do something better than what is obtainable in the p[resent situation of things.
“That is what I expect elders and senior people to start thinking and not to overheat the polity in the name of critics, just like Afe Babalola was saying, I do not expect an icon of law like him and with the level of his knowledge to start thinking of an interim government. I think age is really catching up on him and would not blame him much.
“An interim government will take us backward and does not help our democracy and what he is calling for; even as a layman, I know is not in the constitution. Is he asking for a coup or what? So how does he want to come about an interim government that is not in the constitution? We are not in a military dictatorship, so how can he arrive at that? But you know, this is why we have problems with aged people. As they get older they lose sanity and start thinking differently from the reality on the ground.”
This article was originally published on Nigeria News