Senator Shehu Sani has warned against the National Assembly’s move to amend the Nigerian Press Council Act to regulate operations of the media in the country.
The Senator therefore warned that in the long run it would hunt those behind it when they are out of power.
Shehu Sani gave the warning, when he hosted a group, “I Am NIgeria” who paid a courtesy visit to his residence in Kaduna on Sunday.
He said Nigerian leaders had failed the nation, saying these were people who came to power with promises now wanting to impute seeds of tyranny to stifle and handcuff the media.
“If you end people’s rights, you will be out of power one day. If you don’t have those rights, you will become victims of people in power then,” he warned.
Senator Sani advised the “I Am NIgeria” Group to base their mandate, on inculcating the spirit of patriotism and unity in younger minds in primary and secondary schools.
He said: “An exercise book with pictures of Awolowo, Azikiwe, Ahmadu Bello given to primary school pupils will make more impact than reaching out to older people to preach the NIgeria project”.
He further advised them to look for profiles of other groups with similar motives and invite them to their events.
National Coordinator of “I Am NIgeria”, Denham Julius said that the courtesy visit to the Senator was informed by his nationalistic disposition.
“I Am NIgeria came for a courtesy call because you are a leader and we believe you would be immortalised in the future for your contributions to a greater, united Nigeria,” he said.
He explained that “I Am NIgeria”‘s sole purpose was to unite Nigerians.
“Presently, we have offices in 14 states of the country and are hoping to cover 36 States and Abuja in due course.
“We want everyone to know that they are all important in NIgeria, hence be patriotic and make.the NIgeria project work,” he said.
He further said that they aimed to eliminate dividing factors and orientate Nigerian citizens of importance of every citizen as one strong united entity irrespective of regional, ethnic or religious divides.
“I strongly believe why other countries look down on us as a nation is that we have failed to place value on our citizens.
“The one binding factor that keeps us together is the name NIgeria. If a nation is defined by its people not location, it is important we promote Nigerianess against regional identities,” he said.
