Senator Dino Melaye, has recommended that President Muhammadu Buhari grant presidential pardon and amnesty to those who looted the country’s national treasury.
This is as he also asked Buhari to stop the idea of addressing the President, Vice President, governors, senators with the title ‘His Excellency and Distinguished’ respectively, until the material condition of ordinary Nigerians also become ‘Excellent’.
Melaye made these recommendations also as a means of addressing the present recession in the country in a statement he released on Sunday.
He said, “Though an unrepentant advocate for integrity and forthrightness especially from public office holders, I however sincerely want to recommend that Mr. President grant Presidential Amnesty/Pardon to all those who looted our treasury provided they return all proceeds of their loot to the government within six (6) months of the declaration of the Amnesty.
“This, I believe will encourage the voluntary return of the looted funds, empower the government financially to immediately commence the implementation of projects and programmes that will stimulate the economy and raise the peoples’ standard of living, and save the judiciary and other law enforcement agencies the agony of fruitlessly pursuing the looters in and out of the courtrooms.
“In the long run, this would be a win-win situation for both the government and people of Nigeria. At the expiration of the six months’ ‘Moratorium’, all those who failed to comply would then be made to face the reality of aggressive and expeditious prosecution and eventual jail terms for convicts in accordance with the laws of the land,” Melaye said.
He then asked the President to as a matter of fact remove ‘His Excellency and Distinguished’ from the names of president, vice president, governors and senators respectively.
“In this regard, I recommend that henceforth no president, vice president, governor, or deputy governor should answer the name ‘His Excellency’ until the material condition of ordinary Nigerians has also become ‘Excellent’.
“No Senator should continue to answer ‘Distinguished’ until the masses of the people begin to experience a distinguished existence and no federal or state legislator should wear the badge of ‘Honourable Member’ until the ordinary citizen is himself living a life that can be classified Honourable”, he said.
He is making more than common sense