There should no immunity for Governors in Nigeria, foremost Islamic cleric, Sheikh Muhideen Ajani Bello has said.
Sheikh Muhideen said this during an interview PUNCH.
“What is the essence of giving immunity to the governors; who does that ? They should be called to question when they err. Let us leave immunity for the President alone. The governors are overzealous.
“If they embezzle public funds and we are sure, does it mean we cannot question them? Some of them have no regard for the President. Most of the governors are power-drunk. Our governors came to the position wretched. If you vest excessive power in a wretched man, what do you expect of him ? Such a person will misbehave, “Sheikh Muhideen said.
He, however, maintained that the President, unlike Governors, should be given immunity.
When asked why, he said, “A President should be given immunity because the office is supreme . After him, there is no other higher authority in the land, humanly speaking. In the past, the kings and emirs were the highest authorities before the advent of modern politics.
“Today, politics has stripped the monarchs of their powers. That is why a governor would say, after they sit at an occasion, encomiums should not be showered on any other person in such a gathering; is that not the height of impunity? Americans, for instance , want to believe that their president is the world leader.
“Nobody appoints the American leader as the world leader but they just hold the belief because they honour their own. Why then should Nigerians not honour their President? Had we followed the path of honour and justice in Nigeria, we would have been as great as America and our President could have, as well, been so honoured. However, we are so greedy and backward. If we remove immunity from the President, he is no longer powerful.”
Sheikh Muhideen also noted that any cleric who praise governors lack integrity because they don’t deserve encounioms saying “Such clerics lack integrity. The governors don’t deserve encomiums. If we shower encomiums on the monarchs, that is understood. Without (a reigning monarch) dying, another king cannot be enthroned, but a governor has just four years or at most, eight.”
