Travel Ban On Dead And Living Nigerians, ‘I Couldn’t Care Less’ – F F Kayode
The Oasis Reporters
October 15, 2018
The Executive Order banning about 5O prominent Nigerians seems not to have generated the kind of excitement expected, compared to the 1984 arrest and trial of prominent politicians caught in the country when then Major General Buhari overthrew the democratic civilian administration of President Shehu Shagari. Buhari said he was fighting corruption then, but three months into his military regime, foreign newspapers including the New York Times said he was losing support as the economy nosedived and millions of Nigerians could no longer hold on to their jobs.
Thirty four years after and with barely six months to the end of his tenure as a democratic president, President Muhammadu Buhari has issued an Executive Order that includes the late Innocent Umezulike, former Chief Judge of Enugu state who was buried only two months ago.
Another feature of the Travel ban list is that it includes several opposition politicians whose international travel documents have been confiscated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, some for ten years and they are known not to have left the country ever since.
Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, Nigeria’s former Minister of Aviation said :
“I could not give a damn that my name is on the list of 50 members of the opposition and prominent Nigerians that have been placed on a travel ban because nothing that Buhari does surprises me.
I have not left Nigeria since 2008 because my passport has been with the EFCC and the courts for the last 10 years and they have refused to give it to me and allow me to travel. Those on the travel-ban list that need to travel abroad for medical attention or to see their loved ones are the ones I feel sorry for. For me, travel ban or no travel ban, I have no intention of leaving Nigeria anytime soon because I am one of those that will be on the forefront in the struggle to liberate our country and ensure that we get Buhari out of power in the next few months.
By God’s grace in February we will flush him and his incompetent, fascistic, mendacious, divisive, corrupt, abusive, vicious and genocidal government down the toilet and send them back to hell where they belong”
One of the names on the travel ban list in circulation is Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), former National Security Adviser to former president Goodluck Jonathan. He has been in detention for almost three years now with his travel documents confiscated. He has been held on alleged corruption charges and all attempts to grant him bail by the courts has been frustrated by suspected agents seemingly working in the interest of the government. Sambo Dasuki is yet to be seen in open court.