The Chairman of the Delta Obedient Elders Council, Chief Chris Biose, on Sunday emphasized that a shadow cabinet is not an alternate government as insinuated by the Department of State Services, DSS.

Biose, in a statement in Asaba, the Delta State capital, lamented the role of the ?lame-duck and profligate? 10th National Assembly which he said was compounded by the accelerated spate of defection of politicians from other parties to the ruling All Progressives Congress.

He said that the absence of official opposition in the country and its proclivity towards dictatorship, poses grave dangers, insisting that the proposal by Prof. Pat Utomi to form a 39-man Shadow Cabinet was timely, bold and well informed.

He said: ?In the absence of a viable legislature and collapse of the party system in Nigeria, opposition is left to pro-democracy activists, socio-cultural organisations, Civil Society Organisations, and professional bodies. In view of the above, the role of Opposition in the country falls squarely on patriotic citizens.

?The recent proposal by Professor Pat Utomi to form a 39-man Shadow Cabinet for Nigeria is timely, bold and well informed.

?It is designed to interrogate government policies on critical national issues such as security, education, health, justice system, productivity, accountability and management of the economy.

?Each of the Shadow Team members would come up regularly, say, every two weeks to X-ray an aspect of government policy that he has studied. Pat Utomi described it as ?a structured way of asking government to be more accountable? which is imperative in a functional social democracy.

?Surprisingly, the Department of State Services (DSS), filed a suit at a Federal High Court, Abuja, challenging the constitutionality of the Shadow Cabinet Project. The secret police claimed that the Shadow Cabinet could destabilise the country, incite political unrest and threaten national security by creating chaos.

?In view of grave issues raised by the DSS, it becomes necessary to place the concept of shadow cabinet in proper perspective. First of all, a shadow cabinet is not an Alternate Government as insinuated by the DSS.

?Government is the instrument, which the state employs to achieve its will. It provides the machinery through which the will of states are formulated, expressed and administered. The major arms of government are Legislature, Executive and Judiciary but shadow cabinet is none of these.

?According to UK Parliament online, ?the shadow cabinet is the team of senior spokespeople chosen by the Leader of the Opposition to mirror the cabinet in government. Each member of the shadow cabinet is appointed to lead on a specific policy area for their party and to question and challenge their counterpart in the cabinet.?

Chief Biose argued that Pat Utomi?s suggestion, besides the constitutional right of freedom of speech enshrined in Section 39(1) of Decree 24, would provide a coherent, systematic and constructive platform to further consolidate democracy in Nigeria. (Sunday PUNCH)

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