By George Mgbeleke<\/p>\n
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has strongly rejected the directive by the Minister of Works, David Umahi, to decorate the First Niger Bridge with photographs of President Bola Tinubu, describing the move as an unacceptable personalisation of a public asset.<\/p>\n
HURIWA in a statement signed it national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko said the First Niger Bridge belongs to the Nigerian people and must not be converted into a platform for political personality promotion.<\/p>\n
The rights group said it was particularly concerned by the minister\u2019s statement directing the Senior Special Assistants to the President in the South-East and South-South to beautify and colour the bridge with photographs of the President.<\/p>\n
Umahi had said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe South-South and South-East SSAs to Mr President, they have to fertilise the bridge. They\u2019ll beautify, they\u2019ll colour it with the President\u2019s pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the minister, the President \u201cdeserves to be appreciated\u201d for what he described as the quick intervention and quality of work being undertaken on the bridge.<\/p>\n
But HURIWA says rehabilitation of public infrastructure cannot legitimately be presented as a personal favour by the President.<\/p>\n
HURIWA says the First Niger Bridge was not built with the personal resources of President Tinubu, neither is its rehabilitation being financed from his private resources. It is a public infrastructure funded through public resources and therefore belongs to the Nigerian people.<\/p>\n
The organisation says government has a constitutional and administrative responsibility to provide, protect and maintain public infrastructure for the common good.<\/p>\n
HURIWA therefore rejects any attempt to personalise the bridge to President Tinubu or any other political office holder.<\/p>\n
Public infrastructure must remain public. The First Niger Bridge should not become a billboard for the President, the ruling party or any individual politician.<\/p>\n
Whether the project was initiated by a previous administration or rehabilitated under the present administration, it remains a national asset. No President acquires personal ownership of public infrastructure merely because his administration funds its rehabilitation.<\/p>\n
HURIWA says Nigerians should be allowed to see public projects as investments belonging to them and not as political gifts from individual office holders.<\/p>\n
The rights group further warned that the display of political photographs on public infrastructure could blur the distinction between government activities and partisan political promotion.<\/p>\n
HURIWA says the Ministry of Works should instead focus on ensuring the structural integrity, safety and durability of the bridge.<\/p>\n
The organisation noted that Umahi also directed the removal of unauthorised advertisements from the bridge, installation of additional solar lights, completion of CCTV facilities and an assessment of the bridge above and below the water level.<\/p>\n
HURIWA says those measures are legitimate responsibilities of the relevant authorities and should be pursued without attaching the personality of any politician to the infrastructure.<\/p>\n
The group therefore calls on the Minister of Works to withdraw the directive for the display of President Tinubu\u2019s pictures and ensure that the First Niger Bridge remains a neutral national asset.<\/p>\n
HURIWA says Nigeria must move away from the culture of naming, branding and decorating public infrastructure around individual political office holders. Public projects should be remembered for their service to citizens, not for the political personalities occupying office when they are constructed or rehabilitated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By George Mgbeleke The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has strongly rejected the directive by the Minister of Works, David Umahi, to decorate the First Niger Bridge with photographs of President Bola Tinubu, describing the move as an unacceptable personalisation of a public asset. HURIWA in a statement signed it national coordinator, Comrade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17918"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17920,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17918\/revisions\/17920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}