Nigerians Besieged By Insecurity, Bad Governance, Says Ballason

By Frederick Peters, KADUNA

NEWSDAILYNIGERIA– The C.E.O. of House of Justice and principal Partner MIVE EGALS, Barrister Gloria Ballason, has described Nigerians as being between the devil and deep blue sea in a country where terrorists are terrorizing the country and bad governance is destroying systems and creating debilitating legacy problems.

The Kaduna- based rights activist also faulted government’s handling of the battle against insecurity, by not prioritising the protection of lives and property of Nigerians, which ought to be the primary purpose of any government.

She disclosed this at the 2021 Annual Summit and Banquet of the House of Justice, with the theme ” Leadership, Governance and National security on Friday, 26 November,2021 in Kaduna .

According to her, the daily lives of the citizenry are being crippled by the unabating cases of insecurity in the land
” before this present government, terrorism used to be Boko Haram in the Northeast only, now the situation has metastasized, so whether government calls them bandits or Boko haram, one thing is sure that this is a terrorised country

” and the government has not called the bandits the belligerents that they are, which could have set in motion the applicable International Humanitarian Law provisions and the United Nations Security Council Resolution 678 and the right for communities to protect themselves under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. So we have constantly, gone from bad to worst” she added.

She further decried the anomaly in Kaduna State where civil servants, Magistrates and Judges either have their salaries arbitrarily slashed down or are not paid at all stating that salaries are rights not privileges and that the judiciary must be insulated from all shenanigans so they can focus on the work of justice for our collective security. On the national scene.

Ballason also said the removal of former Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen by exparte and the public action of the Code of Conduct Tribunal Chairman Danladi Umar against a guard are inconsistent with legal practitioners or judicial codes and create a terrible legacy problem for Nigeria and the judiciary which will not go away until they are well addressed.

She however said ” how to solve this is something that the government needs to think clearly about and commit to, but you know if the government is not acting based on a system or its essence, sentiments will becloud reason.

” The judiciary itself must in the words of Hon. Justice Oputa, exercise the independent super- intendency role it is constitutionally called to do or things will slide to injustice and anarchy”, she stressed.