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Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State |
Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has said he would
apply fully the Nigerian Constitution, which he subscribed to and not the laws
of a European country or the whims of some activists.
The governor, who said the international community cannot
dictate to Nigeria on which values it should adhere to, said there was so much
hypocrisy by the international community on the issue of human rights.
Speaking in Abuja, at a one-day seminar on the “Role of the
Public Complaints Commission in a Democratic Government in Nigeria,” Oshiomhole
said Nigeria as a sovereign nation had a right to define its own national
values.
According to him, “Nigeria is a sovereign nation and we have
a right to define what we regard as our own national values. No national interest is defined by
others. As we speak, nations and humans
are involved in the battle of ideas on the basis of different value system and
it will be abuse of my own value system if someone chooses to assume that his
values are superior to my values.”
Oshiomhole said: “I am part of the international community
and my views should carry as much weight as the views of any other person in
the same international community and where we have not counted the votes, we
cannot assume that the views from London are shared by Abuja.”
The governor declared: “As a Catholic, I am more fanatical
about the sanctity of life. The foundation
for human rights is the rule of law, not rule of resolution, not rule of
communiqué; not rules of recommendations.
“When I was sworn in, I subscribed to the oath that I shall
subscribe to the oath that I shall obey the Constitution of Nigeria. There is no suggestion that I shall obey the
UN or resolution of the European Union that has not been domesticated by the
Nigerian government. I do understand
that there is no such thing as universal values."
He further argued that Nigerian values are not less elegant,
less human and, therefore, not less acceptable.
“In trying to understand how best to protect the sanctity of
human life, if you carry out an act and you confess to it, you shall go. You have no right to tell me that your values
are superior to mine,” he said.
The governor decried the activities of some Nigerians, who
parrot some of those values that were offensive to the culture and tradition of
the African people.
Citing the same sex marriage as one of the offensive laws of
the European Union, Oshiomhole said: “Now they are canvassing the same sex
marriage. If they think it is right to
marry a man in the West and we think it is a crime to marry a man in Africa,
African values are superior to European values and we have to push for them to
interrogate their own values.”
The governor noted that more than half of the states in the
United States still subscribed to death penalty, stressing that: “We have not
heard the European Union say anything about them. He advised the international
community to recognise that Nigeria is part of the European community and they
cannot give us orders or insist that we
act according to their orders.”
The governor noted that democracy offers space for those who
are not satisfied to complain and urge that necessary machinery be put in place
to empower the public complaints commission to function effectively.
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