Recover Billions of Dollars Debt, Identify Change, Falana Tells FG

Human Rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has expressed displeasure over state of affairs in the nation, stressing that the country is going through a lot of crisis despite the promise of the present administration to bring change to the country since assuming office nine months ago.

The legal activist also frowned on attempts by the Federal Government to foist more pains on Nigerians through the 45 per cent increase in electricity tariff, and insisted that government has not recovered a sum of $66.5 billion it is being owed by the banks, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and others.

He said the country is yet to identify the much-needed change and therefore called on civil organisations such Committee for Human Right Defence (CDHR) to sound a note of warning to the regime to take the governance of the country seriously.

Falana who gave the charge at the 2016 National Conference Meeting of CDHR with the theme ‘Challenges of Protecting the Human Rights of Nigerians in a Democracy’ in Lagos yesterday said if after nine months the administration assumed office, the country is yet to experience any evidence of change, then there are problems.

He frowned at the import-orientated nature of the economy which he said it makes possible to bring in everything from overseas, stressing that businessmen who were trading abroad 10 months ago can no longer transact businesses outside the shores of the country because of importation. “I’m happy that the president Buhari has said they are not going to devalue the naira, but devaluation has already taken place”, he added.