Buhari hurting nation’s image, says ex-senator

•Shehu Sani faults town hall meetings, introduces ‘street parliament’

The representative of Benue North East Senatorial District during the Third Republic, Prof. David Iornem, says the way President Muhammadu Buhari presents corruption amounts to “bad-advertising Nigeria to the whole world.”

Iornem, while lauding efforts to rid the nation of the menace, however, contended that “too much noise about the anti-graft war around the world rather than real action does not speak well of Nigeria’s image.”

Reiterating that no nation was corruption-free, Iornem regretted that Nigeria, unlike the United States and South Africa that are in the bracket of the world’s top 20 countries with high cyber crimes, had been described as a fantastically corrupt nation “due to the bad image the anti-graft commission and the President have created for the country.

“I am not against the corruption crusade of the present administration, but the problem is the negative image it has brought to us as a country. No nation is free of corruption but they all know how they fight it without damaging their image,” he said.Iornem urged the current administration to prioritise policies to move the country forward.

Meanwhile, the current senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, has advocated street parliaments to allow for closer interactions between the governed and public office holders.

He criticised town hall meetings being organised by political leaders, saying they are deceptive and stage-managed as the organisers only get what they want to hear.Consequently, he launched the initiative in all seven local councils that make up his zone and held street meetings with constituents where he pledged to bring their grievances to the fore.

“Street Parliament is a new concept directed to develop an open interaction between the governed and the government,” he said.Sani added: “What they call town hall involves inviting people to a hall. But this strategy of street parliament is bringing the government to your doorstep, streets and possibly, to your houses. By this idea, it means listening to your complaints, views and suggestions on governance. And it also involves carrying you along in the process of law-making.“It is a new concept of developing a continuous relationship between the electorate and those elected into public offices.”