The Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, yesterday commended Acting President Goodluck Jonathan for the dissolution of the Executive Council of the Federation, advising that people of proven integrity should be appointed to serve the nation. In a statement in Lagos NBA President, Chief Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, said:
We received, with great relief, the announcement by the former Minister of Information, Prof Dora Akunyili, on the dissolution of the Executive Council of the Federation by the Acting President, Dr Jonathan.
This act, though belated, is very welcome. The members of the defunct cabinet had shown that their allegiance to the country was secondary to other prebendal considerations. They clearly exhibited lack of respect for the person and the office of the Acting President.
They treated Nigerians with unimaginable contempt that should have ordinarily compelled our insistence on their trial. That we tolerated them up till this time is a sad commentary on our docile disposition which is often, disappointingly too, mistaken for resilience.
The Acting President had been working with those who thought they must receive their orders from elsewhere. Relieving them of their various positions of privilege was indeed long overdue.
We must, however, throw in a caveat now that the Acting President has been reported as saying that some of the non performers may be brought and a new set of appointments may be made. The time left for this administration is so short that it cannot afford the luxury of spending eternity to settle down.
We are sure that the Acting President must have been inundated with requests of favours from all and sundry. He must, as a sign of patriotic zest, do away with political jobbers and all characters with no visible means of livelihood other than politics.
Only those who are technically eligible must be nominated for the approval of the National Assembly. Any member of the defunct band whose name may reappear on the list must owe this singular opportunity to his or her exceptional qualification and nothing else.
None of them must be brought back on the ground of sentiments. The time is ticking fast. Posterity waits with its harsh verdict.