(Breaking News, Nigeria News) Colonel Tony Nyiam (retd),who has been forced to resign from the Presidential Committee on National Dialogue,according to Newsdiaryonline.com findings has opened up, stating why he acted in a manner the entire committee has now deemed “unruly behaviour”.
News reports Wednesday quoted Nyiam as accusing Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole of making “sarcastic remarks” about the conference.He also accused the governor of “talking down on people”.
Nyiam said “Governors who have penchant for insulting the President or making sarcastic remarks against the sense of judgment of the President of Nigeria should be ready to tolerate response from Nigerian citizens to tell them no. The committee’s role is advisory, we need to consult with the people to advise us and we will then synthesise the people’s opinion and use that to advise the President because we believe that we need to work towards a people’s-driven constitution which we never had in our history.
‘’We thought we should start a bottom-up approach from the grassroots to the top. The attitude was that there should be no talking down on the people we are supposed to engage the people not to talk down on them. Based on this principle, the key feature of our consultation was to meet with the people but out of courtesy we pay courtesy calls on the governors or the king in the city.”
Furthermore, he said ‘’ So when people started booing the governor, I went to the chairman to remind him about the rules of our committee. The chairman said we should give him a chance to continue. He carried on with his derogatory remarks and it was at that point I then said ‘no, not again’. When I said that, by this time, his aides tried to come at me, but when I suspected that one was at my back I stood up. I sat down throughout.
Nyiam added that “Not long after, a group of thugs came towards the table. It was then that the SSS people advised that my life was not safe and I was taken away for safety. The girector of the state SSS raises security around us. The Commissioner of Police came to see me and they brought security. The police drove us all through out of Edo State because of the fear of attack. So, contrary to what they said, that I mobilised thugs, it is not true, it is Edo people that protected me.”
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However,Edo State Government has reacted swiftly to Nyiam’s reported remarks.In what it tagged “Rejoinder to Tony Nyiam’s misplaced outburst”,Peter Okhiria, chief press secretary to Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole ,the state government described Nyiam’s response as lame and odious.
Okhiria in the rejoinder said “Our attention has been drawn to the lame and odious response of Col Tony Nyiam to his shameful action at the sitting of the Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue in Benin City, on Monday October 28 where he fully exposed his hand as a biased member of a Committee which should be above political, ethnic and indeed other sentiments.
“We wonder when Col Nyiam became the President’s spokesman as to want to drag the President’s name into his shameful act. We are however not surprised, going by his antecedents, the Benin incident was just another manifestation of Nyiam’s lack of respect for constituted authority and his love for disunity.
“Even as an officer in such a disciplined profession as the Nigerian Army, Nyiam stood out like sore thumb and his naked ambition for power led to the death of many officers and men who owned up and faced the sentence for their treason, but where was Nyiam, he took to his heels rather than face the consequence for his action, like all cowards do.
“Nyiam said Governor Adams Oshiomhole was “talking down on the people”. We wonder when airing one’s opinion or saying “I believe that the outcome of this conference will not be different from that of other conferences we have had in the past” means talking down on the people
Nyiam deserves our pity. He might still be hallucinating thinking he is an Army officer who must be obeyed. We recognize that no military officer worth his salt would openly disagree with a superior or a Governor at a forum such as the one in Benin City, but again, we recognize that the maxim“Officer and Gentleman” does not apply to Nyiam as he has once again displayed to the people in the open.
“We find it interesting that Col Nyiam has exposed the undercurrent motive of the conference which has also confirmed Governor Oshiomhole’s initial fears about viability, necessity and desirability of same
“Inasmuch as we believe that Nigeria is in dire straits, the Governor still insists that a talkshop with no agenda is not necessary at this time.
The dialogue committee in a statement by its chairman condemned what it called unruly behaviour during the sitting in Benin, Edo State Capital.
