The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) has praised President Bola Tinubu’s significant achievements, while also urging him to take steps to reduce the cost of governance.
CDHR President, Debo Adeniran expressed his commendation in an interview on Sunday in Lagos, in response to the president’s recent national broadcast addressing the ongoing nationwide protests.
Adeniran acknowledged the president’s efforts, but also emphasized the need for a sovereign national conference to address the country’s pressing issues.
The CDHR president’s statement highlights the organization’s commitment to promoting good governance and human rights, while also encouraging the government to take bold steps towards meaningful reform.
“We would like to commend the president for the giant strides his administration has recorded in the last one year. One of these laudable achievements is signing the student loan bill into law, which is now being disbursed to students.
“We also applaud efforts to secure Supreme Court pronouncement for local government financial autonomy, payment of forex backlog, and increase of the minimum wage from N30,000 to N70,000,” he said.
Mr Adeniran also commended the president for incrementing crude oil production from 900,000 barrels per day to 1.6 million. He listed the creation of the North-West and South-East Development Commissions, and suspension of tariff on imported grains and other essential food items as commendable.
He advised the president to forestall national unrest.
Highlighting the recommendations of CDHR, the activist called on Tinubu to ensure that all Nigerians whose business capital was not up to N5 million should be exempted from paying tax.
He recommended that all essential commodities, including foods, books, and medicine, should enjoy tax waivers. The activist also advocated free education and free healthcare for all children up to the senior secondary level.
According to him, grants should be given to indigent students in tertiary institutions. He said Nigeria was unnecessarily encumbered by the weight of its heavy system of government.
“We would like to recommend a unicameral legislature in the mould of the House of Representatives, which is cheaper and easier to maintain. It also makes government business simpler and faster,” he said.
Mr Adeniran also recommended two tiers of government- the federal and local governments. He urged the president to convene a sovereign national conference to give birth to a new constitution for Nigeria to accelerate unity and progress.
“SNC is the foundation of true democracy and nationhood; without it, we would only be living under self-denial in a mere political contraption without any true unifying factor. We believe that if the above recommendations are adopted, it will douse the current tension being witnessed across the country in the form of protest and wanton looting and destruction of properties,” he said.
(NAN)
