HURIWA Rejects Tinubu Photos, Warns Against Personalising Public Asset

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has rejected the directive by the minister of Works, David Umahi, to decorate the First Niger Bridge with photographs of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

It warned against the personalisation of public infrastructure.

In a statement issued to journalists yesterday in Abuja by its national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA said the bridge belonged to Nigerians and should not be turned into a platform for political personality promotion.

The group reacted to Umahi’s directive to senior special assistants to the President in the South-East and South-South to beautify the bridge and display the photographs of Tinubu on it.

Umahi said, “The South-South and South-East SSAs to Mr President, they have to fertilise the bridge. They’ll beautify, they’ll colour it with the President’s pictures.”

The minister also said the President “deserves to be appreciated” for what he described as the quick intervention and quality of work being undertaken on the bridge.

HURIWA, however, argued that the rehabilitation of public infrastructure should not be presented as a personal favour by the President.

The organisation said the First Niger Bridge was neither built with Tinubu’s personal resources nor was its rehabilitation being financed from his private funds, stressing that it was a public asset funded through public resources.

According to the group, government has a constitutional and administrative responsibility to provide, protect and maintain public infrastructure for the benefit of citizens.

HURIWA therefore rejected what it described as any attempt to personalise the bridge to Tinubu or any other political office holder.

“Public infrastructure must remain public,” the group said, insisting that the First Niger Bridge should not become a billboard for the President, the ruling party or any individual politician.

The rights group said whether the project was initiated by a previous administration or rehabilitated under the current administration, it remained a national asset.

It argued that no president acquired personal ownership of public infrastructure simply because his administration funded its construction or rehabilitation.

HURIWA further said Nigerians should be allowed to see public projects as investments belonging to them rather than political gifts from individual office holders.

The organisation warned that displaying political photographs on public infrastructure could blur the distinction between government activities and partisan political promotion.

It urged the Ministry of Works to concentrate on the structural integrity, safety and durability of the bridge.

HURIWA acknowledged that Umahi had also directed the removal of unauthorised advertisements from the bridge, installation of additional solar lights, completion of CCTV facilities and an assessment of the structure above and below the water level.

The organisation said those measures were legitimate responsibilities of the relevant authorities and should be pursued without attaching the personality of any politician to the infrastructure.

HURIWA therefore called on the minister to withdraw the directive for the display of Tinubu’s photographs and ensure that the First Niger Bridge remained a neutral national asset.

The group also urged the government to move away from what it described as the culture of naming, branding and decorating public infrastructure around individual political office holders.

“Public projects should be remembered for their service to citizens, not for the political personalities occupying office when they are constructed or rehabilitated,” the organisation said.