2023: Only A Drug Infested Politician Siphons Nation’s Treasury – HURIWA

No politician in his right mind, according to the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), will siphon the nation’s treasury while in office.

The Rights organization made the submission in reaction to people criticizing the call on the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to henceforth carry out drug tests on individuals seeking public office in Nigeria.

Speaking on the forthcoming 2023 general elections in Abuja on Wednesday, August 24, 2022, National Coordinator, HURIWA, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, insisted that all candidates vying for various offices in the forthcoming elections should be tested for drugs.

Naija News understands that Onwubiko, in his address at a press conference in Abuja yesterday, said it is a matter of necessity for Nigerians to know the mental health of those they want to elect.

He stressed that someone in his right senses will not have the courage to corner billions of dollars from the country’s coffers to himself except motivated and pushed by drugs.

Onwubiko warned that the political scene would become a soft target for these drug barons who are being chased around and captured by the NDLEA because they need to have a place where they feel they can influence the policies of the government.

The renowned Journalist said: “If you have an office holder who is working optimally, those who are such businesses would no longer find it very comfortable and will now begin to look for other areas where they retire to, where they can not be arrested.

“They need to have a place where they feel they can influence the policies of the government and the only way you can influence policies of the government is to capture power.

“So it is possible that those drug barons who have been rendered jobless right now will try to capture power at any level by sponsoring governors, Senators and even sponsoring themselves to become Senators.

“If you have a system in place where you are putting so much fire on them, they’ll look for other avenues that are quite soft. And the softest avenue for drug barons is politics. Because politics is all about money. It’s all about violence. If you use violence, the most notorious violent entrepreneurs in the past have always won elections.

“They’ve always bribed the Supreme Court or Tribunals to win elections. So drug barons will always try to hijack the electoral process. And it’s important that Nigerians are aware of this. And the Governor of Anambra State said that drug barons are retiring into politics and that NDLEA should carry out drug tests on aspirants ahead of the 2023 elections.”

Onwubiko berated people kicking against the call to do drug tests for public office-seeking persons.