The Conference of United Political Parties (CUPP) has boycotted the public hearing on the controversial Infectious Diseases Control Bill holding this Wednesday, which the organized opposition and other stakeholders in Nigeria referred to as plagiarized legislation by the Nigerian National Assembly.
Spokesperson of the Opposition Coalition (CUPP), Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, disclosing the boycott, said that attending the public hearing is a waste of precious time, describing the event as media show and Owambe gathering [not official state function] organized by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, under the guise of public hearing for the questionable Infectious Diseases Bill he is fronting as sponsor.
The CUPP spokesperson ridiculed the Nigerian National Assembly over what he considered as “a plagiarized legislative work that has brought global shame and ridicule to our lawmakers in international press with suspicious provisions against Nigerian people for which the promoters were about secretly passing without public input before Nigerians and opposition exposed them.” He advocated that “the only thing for the parliament to do is to force the Bill promoter to completely withdraw his copy and paste controversial Bill pending the time a clean work is done with the support of all stakeholders, especially, NCDC.”
He maintained: “The best thing the parliament can do is to start cleaning the image of the House by forcing the Speaker to resign for disgraceful act of plagiarism and past dishonest act which have tainted the image and integrity of the House and will continue to haunt the present House.”
Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, accordingly, declared: “We will not be part of a process led by a tainted man to use an afterthought/stage managed so-called public hearing to stamp into law a suspicious anti people legislation. Total withdrawal of the suspicious bill and reintroduction of a non-plagiarized version by a lawmaker without a dirty past is the only condition that can give Nigerians and the Opposition the confidence to attend and make contributions.”
He started that “this is a House that have a Speaker that has brought so much disgrace to the Institution of lawmaking, especially, with the legendary passing of a wicked and frivolous 22.7 billion and 5.5 billion dollars borrowing plan in a day and in less than one hour despite experts and Public outcry against approving a lopsided borrowing plan that contains owambe projects that will plunge generations unborn into debts.”
Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere admonished that “If courageous lawmakers do not rise up now and flush Gbajabiamila and his cabal out of Office, his actions will continue to bring shame and public anger against the House that still has men and women with honour.”