Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, on Wednesday said a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue, Col. Tony Nyiam (rtd.), lacked decorum required of a former senior military officer.
In a statement titled, “Rejoinder to Tony Nyiam’s misplaced outburst,” and issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Peter Okhiria, the governor said the committee member’s explanation for his disruption of the session in Benin was “lame” and “odious.”
Nyiam had on Monday attempted to shout the governor down when the panel visited Benin to explain its terms of reference.
He had explained that he had to intervene when it appeared that the governor was talking down on members of the audience.
However, Oshiomhole said Nyiam “fully exposed his hand as an unbiased member of a committee which should be above political, ethnic and indeed other sentiments.”
He stated, “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 a 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 consequences of 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.”
Source: Daily Times
