Viewpoint
Justice dispensation in Nigeria is like a shipwreck. And the reasons for this calamity are obvious to the stakeholders. A former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mariam Aloma-Mukhtar, decried in Abuja recently the prevalence of lobbying and favouritism in judicial appointments, instead of being merit-driven.
Her observation is a knock-out on the judiciary. These base criteria, she noted, have led to a decline in standards, weakening of the judiciary and enthronement of incompetent judicial officers. With the “rising culture” label she attached to it, it is obvious that the tumour has been with the system for long.
Politicians of note are involved in this racket. In a highly corrupt country like ours, this is tragic. As someone who chaired the National Judicial Council until 2014 when she retired, revealing what she did to tame the scourge would have made more sense. However, she was right in stressing that “these practices negate the principles of justice and breed indiscipline.”
Globally, the values of a judge define the quality of the bench. The position is magisterial, reserved only for men and women of distinction – with integrity, honour and high intellect – given the fact that they are expected to deliver justice to all; and hold the power to decide matters of life and death over fellow human beings.
The method will “ensure that only fit and proper persons and the most intellectually astute, morally sound, meritorious and deserving candidates are appointed as judges of courts. It is the best way to proceed in reforming our judiciary,” Mohammed had intoned.
But Aloma-Mukhtar’s recent misgiving simply means that Mohammed’s reform was either ineffective or it never took off. The dominant practice has been for the Federal/States Judicial Service Commissions to prepare a list of nominees. The NJC screens and successful candidates are then forwarded to either the president or the governor for eventual appointment.
If mundane considerations, as outlined by the ex-CJN, still mess up judges’ selection process, it means then that the NJC deserves a big hit. Its incumbent chairman and CJN, Walter Onnoghen, should now hit the bull’s-eye. Undoubtedly, the extant procedure or Mohammed’s template is open to abuse. For instance, if a CJN once arrested a judgement of an election petition, or tried to influence its outcome in the past, then such a figure cannot be trusted with the responsibility of nominating an upright candidate to the position of a judge.
Again, a retired President of the Court of Appeal, Ayo Salami, a few years ago, took the lid off the disgraceful post-retirement misconduct of some retired senior judges who intimidated judges handling cases at Election Petitions Tribunals, funnelling bribes to them on behalf of their desperate “clients” who wanted to win at all costs.
Therefore, the selection process should be broadened to involve the larger society. It will beget public confidence for our beleaguered judiciary. This works in Kenya, Canada and Australia. In Canada, a Supreme Court nominee submits an application to a screening committee comprising judges, lawyers, government officials and members of the public.
A former Chief Justice of Australia, Anthony Mason, now a law professor at the University of Cambridge, the United Kingdom, says higher courts appointments are made with the public knowing the procedures that are followed. The process, he emphasises, involves consultation and enquiry with professional groups and people who can speak for the public interest.
The racketeering in Nigeria’s judiciary and high-level of indiscipline on the bench have become too rampant and laughable: Judges from courts of coordinate jurisdictions still give conflicting judgements; it is doubtful if granting of ex parte motions, relief not sought, interlocutory injunctions, perpetual injunctions, use of other discretionary powers have been abandoned by the judges who traffic in them. These are abuses driven by graft.
Instructively, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015, which prescribes procedures for speedy trials and is meant to address these concerns, is being undermined by judges in many ways, which include giving ruling on interlocutory applications, instead of doing so while delivering judgement in the substantive case. The abuse, says a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Itse Sagay, constitutes “gross misconduct deserving of sanctions by the NJC.”
While Aloma-Mukhtar and Mohammed may have expressed their anxieties, which others share, howling over the matter does not solve the problem. The beneficiaries of such flawed appointments should be fished out and sent packing. It is just like the efforts by states to cleanse their payroll by sacking workers who got into the civil service through the back door.
This remedial step makes sense. The depravity should not be like the “billionaire judges” the late jurist, Kayode Eso, bemoaned; or the corrupt judges that a SAN, Femi Falana, says information on them freely circulates within lawyers circles. The country should abort this rot by ensuring that judges pass through the furnace before their appointment, for a better society.
Punch
The Land Use Charge Law 2018, LUC, recently enacted by the Lagos State House of Assembly to replace the LUC of 2001, has understandably kicked off a firestorm of protests across the state because of what many see as its shylock provisions that if implemented, will be very oppressive on property owners, tenants and long-term property users in the state.
The LUC is a consolidation of all property and land-based rates and charges payable under the Land Rates Neighbourhood Improvement Charge and Tenement Rates Laws of Lagos State. It is perhaps a major effort at raising the $50 billion which the Lagos State Government says it needs within the next five years to transform the infrastructural landscape of the nation’s melting pot and former capital.
When it comes into operation, property owners will find themselves saddled with charges that could rise to over 400 per cent of what they are currently liable to pay. Governor Akinwunmi Ambode explained that the increase is justified by the steady improvement in the infrastructure of the state in the past 20 years. He also pointed to the fact that since 2001, no rate increases have been imposed contrary to the requirement of the law which recommends an increase every five years.
Several organisations – including the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Lagos Branch and some groups in the Organised Private Sector – have protested and threatened to drag the state government to court. Some landlords associations are also considering class action suits to get the law repealed.
There is no arguing the fact that government has the right under the law to seek ways of shoring up its Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, to continue to provide services to the people. The Lagos State Government has been a pacesetter and a source of inspiration not just to other states but also the Federal Government in the aggressive pursuit of IGR.
We are pleased and relieved that the LASG is already responding positively to the call for another look at the LUC. Also, Governor Ambode has offered to reduce some of the charges between 15 per cent and 50 per cent. This is highly commendable and expected of a responsive, democratically-elected government.
We call on the LASG to take this law back to the drawing board and consult more widely before re-enacting it into law. LASG should also be mindful of the crushing economic situation the people are passing through because it is the common man that will ultimately bear the brunt of the increase in charges.
Let this law properly reflect Governor Ambode’s mantra that Lagos is for all.
Vanguard
Caution is required as alcohol and tobacco taxes go up in new revenue drive
TAX authorities seem to be firing on all cylinders around here recently. Various revenues collecting regimes and schemes are being churned out by the day. It is, of course, a response to the shrinking revenue base of the government as well as the urgent need for more infrastructure funds.
It is also symptomatic of the enhanced paradigms that have been brought about in revenue collection which are not unconnected with the fresh minds managing the process. Ebullient Mr. Tunde Fowler, for instance, who leads the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), must be mentioned for showing his mettle already.
However, tax which is almost as old as man lugs a lacuna all of its own. All through its long history, mankind has detested both the tax collector and his trade. Unless it is in exchange for valued goods and services, ever seen a man part with his money with a smile?
Fowler had illustrated this point when he decried the fact that only 943 individuals out of the entire taxable adults in Nigeria pay up to N10 million as tax yearly. Of this figure, 941 are in Lagos and two in Ogun State.
Fowler notes: “That tells us that in all other states of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory, there is no billionaire or multi-millionaire.
“But, when you look at the assets and the vehicles that are on our roads, then you will know that something is wrong. If you look at the average house in Ikoyi or the average house in the high net worth neighbourhoods in Kaduna, Rivers, Onitsha and other cities, you find houses that are worth over N500 million. So if an individual has a house worth over N500 million and he did not pay N10 million in tax, where did he get his money from?”
No thanks to years of oil boom, tax collection and payment have been abysmal. Various governments, awash with petro-dollars have been lax in collecting and the citizen didn’t see the need to hand government officials more cash. But oil revenues have dwindled drastically while infrastructure gaps keep widening.
This explains why measures have been put in place in the last two years to capture more tax payers. For instance, the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) has reportedly yielded N20 billion already in just a few months and with little hassles.
These are just a few of the activities going on in the FIRS and the 36 states’ revenues services under a more collaborative Joint Tax Board, JTB.
Amidst all this, the Federal Government apparently succumbed to a long-sustained pressure from the World Bank to hike excise duty on alcoholic drinks and tobacco.
According to the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, “the upward review of the excise duty rates for alcoholic beverages and tobacco will achieve the dual benefits of raising government’s revenues as well as reducing the health hazards associated with tobacco-related diseases and alcoholic abuse.”
Though it is said that the increase followed all-inclusive stakeholders’ engagements, apart from the fact that the increment would be graduated over a period of three years; we call for caution. The largely downtrodden consumers could resort to illicit smoke and drinks, thereby jeopardising the beverage and tobacco sectors of the economy, and even their health.
The economy is yet to completely come out of recession, inflation remains in the double digits and income has not risen in nearly seven years. There has been also a rash of jacked up levies, charges and tolls from different states. Government must therefore be wary of excessive taxation.
In fact it must create a fine balance between the quest for more revenues and the right of the citizenry to individual wealth and happiness.
The Nation
The natives of the FCT under the aegis of Abuja Indigenous Association (CAIA), have said they will not vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019 polls if their stakeholders fail to channel their pressing problems to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja on Friday, the spokesman of the group, Ahmadu Yunusa Yusuf, said the natives had already lost confidence in the APC-led administration for failure to address their challenges, especially failure to give them a ministerial slot.
He said the natives would soon embark on another protest against the APC government if the stakeholders fail to take action within the shortest period of time.
The natives further expressed disappointment over what they described as lukewarm attitude of the area council chairmen towards their plight.
“We can’t imagine that none of these council chairmen has ever gone to the media asking Mr. President to appoint an FCT indigene as minister. And we want to make it categorically clear that we will not vote APC come 2019 election,” he added.
Daily Trust
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, recently revealed that about 90 million Nigerians have no access to electricity. The minister, who was represented by the Acting Director in the ministry, Faruk Yabo, at the annual international conference of the Centre for Petroleum, Energy, Economics and Law (CPEEL), University of Ibadan, lamented that despite abundant sources of energy in Africa, such as natural gas, crude oil, coal and renewable energy, half of about 1.5 billion people, who lack electricity in the world live in Africa.
We commend the minister for publicly acknowledging the power supply challenge and urge him to find solutions to the problem. Good enough, the minister has underscored the fact that for the government to ensure electricity supply to all Nigerians, the focus should be on developing renewable energy along with conventional power plants.
Fashola also disclosed that some of the federal government’s strategy to improve electricity supply include implementation of off-grid renewable energy solutions such as rural mini-grids, stand alone home solutions, Independent Power Projects (IPPs) for federal universities, teaching hospitals and large-scale solar PV projects.
Some of the energy projects expected to be completed and commissioned this year, the minister said, include the 10MW Katsina wind farm, 30MW Gurara Hydropower, I29MW Dadin Kowa Hydropower, 40MW Kashimbila Hydropower, 700MW Zungeru Hydropower and 14 Solar Independent Power Projects (IPPs). Government must ensure that these projects are completed and commissioned as promised.
Besides, we enjoin the government to emulate other African countries that have overcome the energy supply problem such as South Africa and Ghana. We say this because it would be useful to profit from their experiences. Since power supply remains a veritable gateway to rapid industrialisation and economic development for any country, the government must quickly tackle the energy supply deficit.
At the inception of the present political dispensation in 1999, the nation had a generating capacity of 2,000MW. Despite injecting over $16 billion into the beleaguered power sector since 1999, the situation has not significantly improved. At present, Nigeria generates about 7,000 MW. This is far below the expectations of Nigerians. It is estimated that Nigeria should generate about 40,000 MW to ensure stable power supply. For this dream to be realised, it is projected that $2 billion must be invested in the power sector annually for ten years. Sadly, the nation’s annual budgetary allocation to power sector is so small that it will be difficult to achieve stable power supply so soon.
The nation’s power supply deficit is apparently obvious in the textile industries where stable power supply is critical. The nation’s textile industries that used to be mass employers of labour could no longer do so due to poor power supply and unfavourable business climate.
The situation has led to closure of most of our textile industries, loss of jobs and influx of foreign textile materials into the country.
The government should consider entering into strategic partnerships with relevant foreign partners to solve the problem in the power sector. Let the government tap from hydro, thermal, solar, wind and coal sources of energy to address the electricity supply gap. This approach, we believe, is the best way to tackle the nation’s power challenge.
Sun
Your Excellency, Ambassador George Adesola Oguntade, CFR, CON,
Permit me to quickly congratulate you on your recent appointment as the Nigeria High Commissioner to the Courts of St. James in London by President Muhammadu Buhari.
We saw the colourful photographs of the 'royal' reception given to you and wife at the Buckingham Palace, all the way from Nigeria High Commission at Northumberland Avenue in central London to meet Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, probably for the first time in your life.
I am writing this open letter to you because I know there are many 'faceless' government agents on social media and they would surely draw your attention to this open letter, and also some Nigerians in Scotland may also alert you of this letter.
If I had sent this letter through the High Commission in London, you're not likely to receive it due to the Nigerian factor of bureaucracy. That's another topic for another day.
This is an open letter and the whole world must surely read my views. As simple as ABC.
I recently saw a poster on social media announcing your scheduled visit to Scotland on Saturday, March 24th, 2018, being organised by Nigerian Community Scotland(NCS).
It is tagged as a TOWN HALL MEETING. To the best of my knowledge, no planned protest to disrupt this event because for now, Nigerians in Scotland undoubtedly regard you as a father and an elderly friend unless otherwise stated.
This is not the first time that officials of the Nigeria High Commission from London shall be visiting Scotland to discuss ideas and listen to views of Nigerians living in Scotland and your visit cannot be the last.
Your Excellency Sir, I can comfortably tell you that such past visits had no positive impact for Nigerians living in Scotland. Many people regarded the whole exercise as a jamboree.None of our recommendations is implemented to date. Same old story after speaking plenty grammar!
Nigerians in the United Kingdom are tired of listening to 'sweet' nothing, propaganda, official lies and rhetorics of government officials whose main work is to attend to the welfare of Nigerians living (legally or illegally!) in the United Kingdom but these well-paid officials always treat fellow Nigerians with utter disdain and disregard for human dignity. I am not here to open a can of worms.
Your Excellency Sir, I won't tell you about the unprofessional attitude of some of the staff working at the Nigerian High Commission in London when Nigerians are desperately in need of passports or visas. You may need to re-train many of them to treat fellow Nigerians with respect and dignity.
I am sure you're not going to tell us all the achievements of President Muhammadu Buhari in Glasgow because Nigerians in the diaspora are always in touch with Nigerians living in Nigeria for regular updates. The whole world is now a global village. Nothing is hidden anymore.
Your Excellency Sir, permit me to make a passionate request and if you're able to achieve this project during your tenure as our ambassador, it would engrave your name in gold in many hearts.
The largest percentage of Nigerians in Scotland are living and working in Scotland.
What's the cost of having a consular office in Glasgow to attend to the passport/visa applications of Nigerians in Scotland?
Nigerians(living in Scotland) don't need to be travelling to London to apply for Nigerian passport and visa(for Nigerian-British passport holders).
We have been demanding for a consulate in Scotland for over 10 years without any positive solution.
Do we need to engage in 'fasting and prayer' for the Almighty God to touch the heart of Nigerian government before this miracle of establishing a consular office in Glasgow can happen during our lifetime?
Your Excellency Sir, don't come up with usual excuse that Nigeria is broke and can no longer finance another consulate in Glasgow because London is roughly 10 hours drive from Glasgow and about 6 hours by train and less than 2 hours by air. Enough of such gibberish stories!
Can I really count on you to establish a Consular Office in Glasgow as urgent as possible?
Former acting High Commissioner, when asked the same question once, replied in an undiplomatic manner. Permit me to paraphrase his immortal words:"Can you compare the cost and stress of travelling to London and Nigeria when applying for a Nigerian passport? It is still cheaper to travel to London to apply for your passport and visa instead of travelling to Nigeria?"
From my own personal experience, Nigerian government officials don't always listen to all the suggestions and recommendations of Nigerians in the diaspora.
Nobody is ready to waste time and energy to meet any Nigerian government official in the diaspora to discuss same old topics back and forth without any meaningful and visible progress.
Many Nigerians need to work under this unfriendly cold weather and pay their bills! That's the bitter truth.
Maybe your own approach(as a retired judge!) is going to be different and as the English maxim says, "The proof of the pudding is in the eating." We shall be watching you, Sir.
As a retired judge of the federal republic of Nigeria, you must be very familiar with this Latin catchphrase often attributed to Aristotle:"Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas" translating to "Plato is my friend, but truth is a better friend."
Your Excellency Sir, if you're truly our father in the United Kingdom and our loyal friend, you must take the welfare of all Nigerians in the United Kingdom as a serious matter.
For now, on behalf of Nigerians living in the United Kingdom, I wish to call you as an AKOREDE and I hope we won't change that unique sobriquet into another unprintable name.
In conclusion, I warmly welcome you and your entourage to the iconic city of Glasgow in Scotland and all the views to be discussed shall stay permanently in your heart for full implementation.
As they enter through your right ear, never to escape through the left ear,
such views must constantly prick your conscience as the Nigeria High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.
Thank you for reading my long open letter. I hope to meet you 'face-to-face' one day.
Your Revolutionary Compatriot,
Comrade Dare Lasisi.
Former Commonwealth Secretariat Media Intern.
Social media activist, Writer, and Blogger.
The news of the confirmation of the humungous amount of money collected every month by members of the Senate as running expenses hit Nigerians like a thunder bolt. In the past, there have been unsubstantiated rumours about the exact amount pocketed by members of the National Assembly. But this is the first time that a serving legislator will openly declare the precise sum they collect. Senator Shehu Sani told Nigerians that every senator takes home N13.5 million as running costs which is not part of the monthly salary and other allowances such as housing, transport, assistants, etc.
Section 70 of the 1999 Constitution as amended provides that a member of the Senate or House of Representatives shall receive such salary and other allowances as the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) may determine. Thus, it is not for the legislature to fix its own remuneration. In the 2007 review of the provisions of the Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders(Salaries and Allowances, etc) Act No. 6 of 2002, being the law regulating the remuneration and allowances of political, public and judicial office holders as at that date, RMAFC stated that it took the following into consideration: “(a) Changes in the basic fundamentals of the Nigerian economy; (b) External reserves; (c) GDP Growth rate; (d) rate of inflation; (e) correct placement of some category of public office holders who were wrongly placed in the old package; (f)need to modify old salaries and allowances and introduce new allowances that were not included in the old package; (g) need for a living wage to ensure honesty and dignity of the office holders and (h) need to ensure compliance with the provisions of sections 84 (3) and 124 (3) of the 1999 Constitution which states that the remuneration and salaries payable to the office holders and their conditions of service, other than allowances, shall not be altered to their disadvantage after their appointment”.
From the review, members of the Senate and House of Representatives are entitled to a basic annual salary of N2,026,400.00 and N1,985,212.50 respectively. They also get the following as a percentage of their basic salary. Accommodation (200 per cent); furniture (300 per cent); motor vehicle loan (400 per cent); vehicle maintenance (75 per cent); personal assistant (25 per cent); wardrobe (25 per cent); domestic staff (75 per cent); entertainment (30 per cent); utilities (30 percent); recess (10 per cent); and newspaper (15 per cent). However, the constituency vote of the senator is 250 per cent of the basic salary whilst the honourable member gets 100 per cent of the basic salary.
Again, working with the above figures, in the first year of their being sworn in, the total emoluments of 360 Representatives comes up to N9.898 billion. In the second and third year, when furniture allowance and motor vehicle loan will no longer be due, the total emolument of 360 Representatives amounts to N4.895 billion per year. In the fourth year, when the severance package is included, it will amount to N7.039 billion.
Thus, for the four years, the total emoluments of 109 senators amounts to N9.586 billion whilst the 360 Representatives collect N26.728 billion; bringing the Senate and Representatives together gets the overall personnel vote to N36.314 billion. However, these exclude medical allowance which is to be provided as a service, special assistants on grade levels 12 and 14, 3 legislative aides, Duty Tour Allowance, estacode, responsibility allowance for principal officers and security. Thus, the cost of these excluded items should not be more than 25%of the total remuneration of National Assembly members which adds an extra N9 billion bringing the four year cost to about N45 billion. Also, it is understandable that the bureaucracy that services NASS has to be paid. But this cannot escalate the budget to current reality of between N125 billion-N150 billion every year. Generally, the personnel allocation of NASS is about 10 percent of their vote whilst overheads take up about 80 per cent-85 per cent. The remaining 5% is usually for capital expenditure.
There is a consensus of opinion in Nigeria that this package of emoluments is extremely generous in a poor country where the bulk of the population live in extreme poverty; the infrastructure is in poor shape and all major human indicators are headed south. To now add N13.5 million per senator every month amounts to extra N17.658 billion every year totaling N70.632 billion over four years. We are yet to get the details of running cost of the Representatives which will definitely be higher than the figures in the Senate considering their number of 360. This is not only outrageous but an affront of incalculable proportions on the majority of citizens who find it difficult to eke out a living.
For the Senate spokesman to affirm that the running cost is already contained in the federal budget and as such, there is nothing new to it is the height of mischief. For so many years at the Citizens Wealth Platform, we have been pointing out these frivolous, inappropriate, wasteful and illegal expenditure proposals but no one seems to be listening. The fact that legislators have the power of appropriation and they abuse it for their personal gain, rather than for the peace, order and good government of the federation does not justify, legalise or make right this N13.5 million monthly disbursement. It is simply authority stealing, using the legislative process for ignoble purposes and an abuse of power.
It is interesting that every senator and legislator takes home this money quietly and calmly without highlighting the fact that he is Christian or Moslem, Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba, etc. Thus, there is unanimity of purpose in their resolve to pocket this money without due process. And the fact that this has now become public knowledge is something that most of the members of NASS regret. It is up to Nigerians to decide on how to react to this heist. Impunity rules where men are fearful and refuse to stand up for their rights.
The Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), says the N13m allowances being received by senators is only a tip of the iceberg as Nigerians will be shocked when he releases details of the allowances of the principal officers of the National Assembly.
Sagay said this during an interview with our correspondent.
Sagay, who has for several years accused federal lawmakers of receiving outrageous allowances, said principal officers of the National Assembly, including the Senate President, Deputy Senate President, Speaker, Deputy Speaker and the majority and minority leaders of both chambers, are receiving far more than what Sani revealed.
The senior advocate said the polity might explode when he released the details of their allowances.
He said, “There are many things the press doesn’t know yet. If you come to know the allowances that the leadership of the two houses are getting… My God! It will blow up the country. What is the Senate President getting? It is not the ordinary N13m.
“What does he get as Senate President? What is the leader of the House getting, what is the deputy leader of the House getting? What is the Deputy Senate President getting? What are the minority leaders getting in both houses? Go and find out. It is an explosive stuff, I tell you. Eventually, I will come out with the figures. I am working on them now. When I am ready, I will come out with them.”
Sagay lambasted spokesman for the Senate, Senator Abdullahi Sabi, for saying that the N13.5m allowances were already in the public domain.
The PACAC chairman said it was hypocritical of the lawmakers to have berated him last year when he released details of their allowances.
He added that Sani’s revelation was at variance with the details released by Saraki last year.
“The salary details released was just about N700,000 but what they voted for themselves is about 20 times that amount. That is the whole point and they were hiding it.
“I came out with the figures last year and they wanted to cut off my neck and now it has come out in the open and Sabi Abdullahi is saying it is nothing new but you were denying it in the past. So, they have a guilty conscience because they know what they are doing is shameful.”
Meanwhile, the Movement for the Actualisation of a Sovereign State of Biafra on Sunday commended Sani for exposing the wages of Nigerian senators.
In a statement by the MASSOB leader, Uchenna Madu, the group said providence would bless Sani for exposing his colleagues.
The Biafra agitators described other senators as “criminal lions.”
The statement partly read, “MASSOB hails Senator Sani representing Kaduna Central in exposing his fellow distinguished criminal lions roaring in the National Assembly of the Nigerian state.
“MASSOB sees the Nigerian parliament, mostly the senators, as market men and women who always see the National Assembly as a business market where they only make billions of monetary profit without investments.
“The majority of these National Assembly businessmen and women are so insensitive and shameless in their dealings with the people of their senatorial districts.
“It is only in Nigeria that a senator will openly without shame donate a gas cooker with frying pan or grinding machines and other useless materials unbefitting of a country’s senator to the few people of his senatorial constituents as an empowerments incentives.
“Nigerian parliamentarians lack innovative empowerments in education, healthcare, economy and technology. They have no visions, intentions or programmes for the poor.”
The group added, “Most worrisome is that the majority of these senators do not exist in the Senate chambers; they only exist during election campaigns or ceremonial functions.
“Most of them are glorified laymen with no qualitative educational background, a man without a good academic insight and exposures as a senator can never be fruitful to his nation.”
Punch
The authorities could do more to protect wildlife across the country
In a devastating blow to conservation of wildlife in Nigeria, an ignorant hunter last week shot and killed an elephant at Janiyi Camp, Idanre, Ondo State after which he took photographs with the animal’s remains as proof of his crime. While the rest of the world may be laughing at us, it should worry the authorities that despite the establishment of protected areas, hunters can now freely enter many of our game reserves to kill protected animals.
It is a shame that a nation which once had the most diverse population of elephants in the world can now boast only a few because they have been hunted almost to extinction. The Idanre Forest Reserve, where the latest tragedy took place, covers 561 square kilometres and is a designated nature reserve of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Legal and regulatory frameworks in wildlife conservation in the country date back to the colonial era. The Forestry Act and Wild Animals Act were patterned after the 1933 London Convention for Protection of African Fauna. This was updated by the Conservation of Biological Diversity and International Law, 1990 UNEP, Nairobi.
Apparently because Nigerians have still not understood the importance of environment, there is a lot of ignorance about how losing some species of plants and animals can have disastrous impact on the rest of the ecosystem. By killing a rare animal dubbed ‘gentle giant’ because of its harmless nature right in its natural habitat, the damage done to Nigeria’s image is huge. We therefore call on the authorities to find the hunter and bring him to justice if only to deter others from believing they can go into our game reserves and kill protected animals without consequences.
The ownership of wildlife in the country is vested in the federal government, according to Section 20 of the National Park Service Act, which states: “The ownership of every wild animal and wild plant existing in its natural habitat in, National park and anything whatsoever, whether of biological geomorphologic or historical origin or otherwise, existing or found in a National park is hereby vested in the federal government and subject to the control and management by the federal government for the benefit of Nigeria and mankind generally.”
Notwithstanding, there should be deliberate initiatives to protect the nation’s wildlife, even if this has to be done in collaboration with private partners, who have expertise in the field. For instance, at Yankari, there is a whole lot of protection work being done by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in collaboration with the Bauchi State government, which runs the park. The WCS has its Elephant Guardian programme to reduce the conflict between humans and elephants and it has helped to improve the level of tolerance towards elephants and the crop damage inflicted.
While we call on the federal government to do all within its powers to protect the nation’s wildlife by taking its conservation responsibilities more seriously, it is also important that Nigerians be enlightened on the issues of environment. As things stand, only organised conservation work, government support and enlightenment and good habitat management are capable of saving the forest elephant species from extinction in Nigeria.
Thisday
Often at odds with each other over issues, the Executive arm and the National Assembly have, however, recently found a common ground in pursuing a draconian legislation on “hate speech.” In this, they clearly intend to surpass the colonial overlords, successive military regimes and the world’s most brutal dictatorships in legal savagery. Nigerians should for once exercise their rights to resist blatant oppression by a degenerate political class.
Critical sections of the society — the mass media, civil society, pressure groups, the academia, writers and creative/performing artistes — that may bear the main brunt of the obnoxious law have been curiously and dangerously indifferent, as only a few voices have raised the alarm. They had better wake up. Eternal vigilance remains the price of liberty.
The Hate Speech Bill, according to its sponsors at the Senate, seeks to “eliminate” hate speech and discourage harassment on the grounds of ethnicity, religion or race among others. It prescribes stiff penalties for offences such as “ethnic hatred.” “Any person who uses, publishes, presents, produces, plays, provides, distributes and/or directs the performance of any material, written and/or visual, which is threatening, abusive or insulting or involves the use of threatening, abusive or insulting words, commits an offence,” it states.
Purveying or inciting hatred is bad, but viewed from all perspectives, this is a bad law being proposed by persons so unfamiliar and uncomfortable with the practices and nuances of fundamental rights and democracy. Not even in his first incarnation as a military head of state did President Muhammadu Buhari propose such heavy jail terms and fines against the exercise of free speech and media freedom. The infamous anti-media Decree 4 that headlined the military junta he led in 1984-85 came far short of imposing millions of naira in fines or prescribing the death penalty. Neither did the British colonial masters who drafted and enforced a succession of sedition and anti-press laws contemplate silencing free speech with the death penalty.
The bill is the culmination of threats by senior government officials railing against “hate speech” in response to criticism and inter-ethnic tension, especially the deep alienation felt, and recently stridently expressed, by some sections of the country angered by Buhari’s glaring sectionalism in appointments and actions.
Our legislators should pre-occupy themselves with passing urgently needed bills such as the 2018 budget that is stuck in the parliament, the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill and the Railway Act repeal bill that would unshackle the railway system and open it up to foreign direct investment.
This sits at odds with provisions on basic fundamental rights outlined in Chapter IV of the 1999 Constitution, especially Sections 38 and 39 that guarantee the freedom of thought, conscience and religion; and freedom of expression and the press, respectively. The basic law and enabling legislation, also sufficiently prohibit the abuse of such rights and discrimination against persons or groups on account of race, ethnicity or faith.
The proposed law is amorphous and open to abuse: who defines or determines what constitutes hate speech? Unlike Canada, Australia, Belgium, Germany, France and other European Union countries that enacted anti-hate speech laws specifically in response to rising xenophobia against racial and religious minorities, our lawmakers and public office holders reveal by their utterances that it is criticism and public scrutiny that they deplore, not the protection of minorities. Recall that the Senate once accused a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Itse Sagay, of hate speech after his scathing criticism of their poor performance, corruption and greed. Interior Minister, Abdulrahman Dambazau, reacting to public anger at Fulani herdsmen attacks, had also hinted of the impending bill to amend the Anti-Terrorism Act 2011 to punish those who publish hate speech against religious and ethnic groups. To be sure, inciting hatred or mob action against others is to be discouraged; efforts should be made to penalise those who cross the line between free speech and criminality.
There are, however, existing laws that cater for abuse of freedom or harassment of individuals and groups, as pointed out by civil society and mass media groups. Laws setting up the National Broadcasting Commission, Advertising Practitioners Council and the Nigerian Press Code have in-built provisions to stop and penalise violence or incitement against others. Nigerian film and video and the censors board filter out offensive material and pornography among others. If the laws are inadequate, they can be updated; the hate speech bill is a poisoned chalice.
Even without it, overzealous policemen and other security agencies have lately been harassing journalists on spurious grounds, signposting the possible abuse of an already obnoxious law.
The mass media, civil society, lawyers, student and labour unions should take up the gauntlet and resist this evil law.Punch
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Disappointed in lawyers because of their manipulation of the legal system during his lifetime, the Lord Jesus Christ did not spare them. Apart from accusing lawyers of hiding the key of knowledge, Jesus proceeded to curse them when he said, “woe to you lawyers also because you load people down with burden they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift a finger to help them”. See Luke 11:46.
The famous English writer, William Shakespeare, was much more impatient with lawyers as recorded in the history play, Henry VI. There was a rebellion. Dick the butcher was a leading member of the rebellion. Convinced that lawyers would invoke the law to oppose and put down the rebellion Dick said: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”
Today, many Nigerians will join Dick in demanding that all lawyers be killed to prevent them from frustrating the war against corruption. As far as such people are concerned, lawyers have committed the unpardonable crime of aiding powerful criminal suspects to escape justice. Lawyers have been accused of resorting to technicalities to perpetrate injustice and colluding with judges to justify the rigging of elections and setting corrupt public officers free while jailing petty criminals.
Although the general perception of lawyers and their role in the society may be erroneous, it cannot be denied that some Nigerian lawyers have contributed to the subversion of democracy and promotion of corruption in the country. It is, therefore, important to continuously examine the role of lawyers in the society.
As far as Transparency International is concerned, corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. Corruption can be classified as grand, petty and political, depending on the amounts of money lost and the sector where it occurs.
Although corruption is not defined by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission Act (CAP C31) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, Section 2 thereof states that it includes “bribery, fraud and other related offences.” The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Act (CAP E1) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 has comprehensively provided for economic and financial crimes. Accordingly, the Commission established by the law is charged with the responsibility to enforce the provisions of the Money Laundering Act, Advance Fee Fraud Act, Failed Banks (Recovery of Debts) and Financial Malpractices in Banks Act, Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, Miscellaneous Offences Act and any other law or regulation relating to economic and financial crimes.
Professor Osita Nnamani Osita once said, “the level of official corruption and moral degeneracy in our land is damming and agonizing. The ills are not only deep, but also pervasive, covering all institutions and private lives. The value system has been completely distorted. The State and its parastatals has become highly desired and prices, the control of which automatically leads to instant wealth. Any person who held government position and came out poor is generally regarded as foolish. Corruption has become a way of life in Nigeria”. In as much as the observations of the learned scholar may be correct it ought to be pointed out that the Nigerian people are not inherently corrupt. In other words, corruption has become pervasive due to the dependent capitalist system imposed on the country coupled with the reckless impunity of the ruling class in Nigeria.
In the bid to combat corruption, a number of laws have been enacted by the federal government.
A cursory examination of the ant-graft laws in Nigeria reveals that there are sufficient laws to deal with the menace of corruption. Apart from the EFCC Act and the ICPC Act, the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act etc., the Police is also vested with the responsibility of investigating corruption and related crimes. There is also the Public Accounts Implementation Tribunal Act Cap P 36 LFN 2004, which provides for the setting up of a Tribunal to recover from public officers, contractors or companies funds misappropriated or due to the Government of the Federation. The Tribunal is to be composed of a retired judge, representatives of the AGF, Auditor-General, Accountant-General and police officer not below the rank of a Commissioner of Police. Under the Public Property Special Provisions) Act LFN 2004, the President is empowered to set up a panel to recover public properties. The law has prescribed life imprisonment for any person convicted for unjust enrichment and 21 years jail term for false declaration of assets.
So, there is enough legislation to deal with corrupt practices, drug trafficking, human trafficking, terrorism and other dangerous offences. It is the lack of political will on the part of the ruling class coupled with the manipulation of the legal system by powerful litigants and senior lawyers who have continued to frustrate the investigation and prosecution of corruption cases. No society can successfully challenge criminality where impunity is the order of the day. Since the courts have a penchant for granting bail in corruption cases the prosecution should stop opposing applications for the bail of criminal suspects. In other words, the prosecution and the defence counsel should agree on the conditions to be attached to bail to enable the defendants to stand trial.
However, where the parties are unable to reach an agreement the trial judge should impose bail conditions that are commensurate with the gravity of the offence. The procedure will save the precious time wasted on arguing applications for bail, which are going to be granted, in any case.
We have seen how the weakness of the criminal justice system has been exploited by lawyers to frustrate the trial of politically exposed persons and top corporate bodies. It is a development which has compelled the anti graft agencies to outsource justice to the detriment of our national integrity. Even though there are enough anti graft laws in the statute books there is no political will to ensure the prosecution of corruption cases in a manner that the menace of corruption is reduced to the barest minimum.
Fighting corruption with a view to eliminating it will require a challenge of the capitalist system whose morality is influenced by fraud and exploitation. Since the ruling class will not deliberately commit class suicide, the progressive members of the legal profession should forge a political alliance with the working class towards the creation of a new society, which will be committed to the actualisation of the fundamental objectives enshrined in Chapter II of the Constitution. Without a new political morality based on the security and welfare of the majority of citizens, corruption cannot be fought and defeated.
To the extent that some funds have been recovered while a number of suspects have been charged to court the fight against corruption may be said to be on course. But the government has to do much more to promote accountability and transparency in government. Since the federal government has not made any appreciable progress in the recovery and repatriation of the nation’s looted wealth the Nigerian judiciary should not hesitate to grant Mareva injunctions in respect of the funds and other assets which have been criminally diverted by a number of unpatriotic public officers.
While people charged with corrupt practices are entitled to individual defence counsel, the NBA ought to collaborate with the federal government in the fight against corruption including the repatriation of the nation’s resources.
In exercise of my right under the Freedom of Freedom of Information Act, I have had cause to request the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to provide information on fuel importation. As it has no answer to the questions, which I raised, the NNPC claimed that it is “not a public institution.” In justifying the rejection of our request for information with respect to the shameful importation of fuel by Nigeria, a leading oil producing nation, the NNPC Counsel claimed that the Corporation is not bound by the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. With respect, the misleading submission of the Counsel does not seem to historically represent the position of the Management of the NNPC.
It is on record that the NNPC Management had once dissociated the Corporation from a similar view credited to the NNPC Legal Department. During the induction ceremony for newly recruited Graduate Trainees held at the NNPC Towers in Abuja on August 10, 2012, the then NNPC Group Managing Director, Mr. Andrew Yakubu, recalled that following the enactment of the Freedom of Information Act the NNPC Management had swiftly established a Task Force with the goal of examining the law and advising management on how best to comply with its provisions.
In fact, Mr. Yakubu said, “long before the Freedom of Information Act came into force, the NNPC has been maintaining an open door policy which sees it volunteering information to its various policies through press releases, advertorials and presentations at different forums including hearings at the National Assembly.”
It was in the spirit of ensuring that its activities and operations live up to public scrutiny that NNPC disregarded the legal opinion of the Counsel when it recently informed a bewildered nation that the corporation had spent $5.8 billion for the importation of fuel in just two months of this year and that N744m is incurred daily as fuel subsidy.
The decision to give details of the cost of importation of fuel has exposed the claim of the Counsel that such matters are “trade secrets” which cannot be disclosed “in the public interest” under the Freedom of Information Act. Since the Board and Management of the NNPC have not had cause to renounce the commitment of the Corporation to comply with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act it ought to make it clear to the Counsel that the days of opacity in the running NNPC are over.
More so, President Mohammadu Buhari stated during the inauguration of the current NNPC board on November 18, 2016 a follows: “Since the arrival of this administration, there has been an improvement in transparency through publishing monthly operational and financial report of the Corporation. “
With respect to the erroneous submission that the NNPC is not a public institution it is embarrassing that the Counsel did not advert her mind to Section 2(7) of the Freedom of Information Act which has defined public institutions to mean “all authorities whether executive, legislative or judicial agencies, ministries and extra-ministerial departments of government, together with all corporations established by law and all companies in which government has a controlling interest, and private companies utilizing public funds, providing public services or performing public functions.”
Contrary to the untenable contention of the Counsel, the NNPC is a public institution as the federal government has controlling interest in it and it is utilizing public funds to provide public services. Indeed, because the NNPC is a public institution its budget is appropriated by the National Assembly while its accounts are audited by auditors appointed by the Auditor- General of the Federation in line with section 85 of the Constitution.
Furthermore, in exercise of its oversight functions the National Assembly regularly conducts investigation into allegations of corrupt practices against the corporation. Of course, the NNPC Board reports to President Buhari in his capacity as the head of the federal government while the NNPC Management reports to him as the Minister of the petroleum resources. It is, therefore, preposterous to say that the corporation is not a public institution.
Members of the legal profession are increasingly being blamed by the Nigerian people because of the strong perception that lawyers and judges are using the law to suppress the quest for a better society. This is a very dangerous perception that must be addressed timely.
Lawyers have a duty to the nation and the society to see to it that corruption and impunity are fought diligently and uncompromisingly. As defenders of human rights and the rule of law lawyers should be committed to the eradication of corrupt practices and impunity.
Nigerians on their part must change their perception and disposition to public office. Citizens have a duty to continually hold public officers accountable for their actions. The passage of the Freedom of Information Act into law has given members of the public the weapon to ask legitimate questions on the management of the affairs and resources of the country.
The civil society movement and the human rights community should redouble their efforts in the struggle to free our nation of corruption. The battle to save our nation from corruption has to be collectively fought and decisively won.
• Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and human rights lawyer, writes from Lagos
At a Senate meeting some two weeks back, Senator Ahmed Ogembe, representing Kogi central alleged that his state governor, Yahaya Bello, sponsored thugs to disrupt an empowerment programme he organised for his constituents. In response, Ike Ekweremadu, the Deputy Senate President taking an overview of a number of undemocratic practices in the country reportedly opined that with the rapid way the country’s democracy was receding, it was not impossible for the military to consider taking over.
The furore which greeted Ekweremadu’s comment probably forced him to recant; more so, as it was given different colourations. In reality however, the statement is a true reflection of the current political situation in Nigeria. Many issues confirm this.
In the first place, with the unwholesome behaviour of the country’s political class, some people are beginning to miss the military era. Indeed, the often stated axiom that the worst civilian government is better than the best military regime is now questionable. In fact, people who used to think that civilian governments and democracy were coterminous now know they have been exceedingly simplistic.
Perhaps the old argument is valid for real democracies but in Nigeria, civilian and military governments have a lot in common with the main difference being dress. It is true that Nigerian soldiers often shot their way to power in the past; in like manner their civilian counterparts have been getting to power against the wish of the people through fake elections. The number of people in political offices who got there through free and fair elections is so few that it is not irrational to conclude that the electoral process is not the real basis for forming governments in Nigeria because all our elections have always followed the same poor pattern.
As once aptly described by the Election Observation Delegation of the International Republican Institute (IRI) the conduct of election in Nigeria can hardly “measure up to those observed by members of the delegation in other countries whether in Africa, Asia, Europe or the Western Hemisphere.” Painfully, those who get into office spend our scarce resources to enthrone their cronies as may happen soon in states like Imo and Ekiti.
It is one of our landmark ironies that soon after a governorship election, governors who claim to be democrats, dissolve “democratically” elected local councils and install unelected caretaker committees. Thereafter, they organize sham local elections in which every seat is won by the ruling class. In certain cases, some candidates garner more votes than are available just as others secure overwhelming votes in election booths where voting did not take place.
Since the present dispensation began in 2015, there have been local elections in 23 states. Of this figure, the ruling APC has “won” 100% of the votes in 14 states that it controls. Its immediate rival, the PDP has also done so in 8 states that it controls. APGA which controls only one state; did what others do. Unfortunately, each charade wherever it occurs gulps huge sums of money, yet majority of our states are unable to pay workers’ salaries- the only thing the latter look up to as of right.
The point to be made is that there is nothing to be happy about with our politicians. Although they promised to build strong institutions, they have only succeeded in weakening all public organizations. In the public service what is in vogue is supersession in which inexperienced persons are being made to head several offices.
Whereas the public is left to believe that there is an embargo on employment, unqualified people are being recruited daily through the back door. Within our poor economy, political office holders are daily acquiring expensive official cars. In the states, the legislature is an extension of the government house and for material consideration does whatever the governor wants.
At the federal level where legislators appear independent, Senators as revealed by one of them last week, have N13.5million each to play with every month in addition to several other bogus allowances.
With these ills quite visible wherever one goes, what seems to matter to people who are virtually becoming hopeless is solution, irrespective of who can bring it. Instructively, the same political class has shown clearly that the best way to solve any problem in the country is to give the task to the military. Hence, our super military are now deployed to all trouble spots like Benue.
It does not seem to matter what they make of the assignment. In other parts of the world, internal security is the function of the police. It is not so in our clime. Even a civilian task like election is being secured by the military. Toll gates otherwise called check points now have military personnel. The police is now reduced to guard duties with every VIP having a sizeable number of them despite the organization’s unending cry of under staffing. If the military must intervene in everything, who says they cannot consider directing their searchlight to our politics.
Those who have stuck to the argument that military rule is an aberration, have a strong point but that is not the only aberration we should abhor. We also need to deprecate others like the pauperization of the masses and the high level of insecurity across the country. Except something drastic is done to our politics, we cannot recover from our imminent downfall.
The panacea which is to search for visionary leaders who can formulate and execute viable policies to transform the nation can hardly materialize because only wrong people get “elected”. Bearing in mind that they are usually coerced by large rented crowds who incessantly appeal to them to contest, they never had cause to tell us what they would do if elected, making it hard for them to be accountable.
So, whatever Ekweremadu said or denied, the earlier it is realized that our military is made up of Nigerians and that they see the nation’s ample political rascality, the better for us all. Growing-up, one of the sayings of our people that made much sense to me was that which said, anyone who is hanging around to stop a fight, ought to have begun appropriately by first stopping violent disagreements that could end-up in a fight.
If we are all silent over the things that are making our state fail, it would be hard to stop the fall. We don’t want military rule; we also don’t want a political class that behaves like a child born drunk.
Chief Olu Falae, a former presidential candidate of the defunct Alliance Democracy/All Nigerian Peoples Party and current National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), in this interview, says the ‘third force’ has come to upstage the two major parties in the country, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He also speaks on the alleged lopsidedness in appointments under the Buhari administration, the performance of the APC-led government, herdsmen/farmers clashes and the 2019 general elections amongst other issues by Dayo Johnson.
What’s all the talk about the SDP being a third force? ls it true that more bigwigs from the PDP and APC are planning to join the SDP?
What started happening last week is a fulfilment of a dream and of a promise which l think the Lord himself made when SDP was re-registered in 2013. When you look at the first poster we sent out, we said ‘The SDP is back’, the third force has arrived. By the grace of God, it is beginning and in a process of emerging as a third force. What is happening is normal in politics, especially in Nigeria where the political domain is always in a state of flux. In Nigeria, politicians are always moving from one political party to other. If you look at the current situation, many leaders, who were in the PDP when Dr Goodluck Jonathan was in power, are today in APC criticizing Jonathan and the former PDP government. However, what is happening, I believe, is a logical outcome of people running platforms and not parties. When I presented my book, ‘The Way Forward for Nigeria’, in 2005 in Lagos, I did say that what we had were no parties, that they were just opportunistic gangs struggling for power. What do I mean? People who have money get together and ask, ‘what can we do to get power in this state?’ ‘What do we do to capture the treasury in the state?’ They make a budget and there is so much poverty around. So they throw money around and people rush to them. They try to outspend one another and on election day, people give them votes and put them in government. Then crisis comes. Because you are not a party, you have no blueprint which you are going to implement to elevate the people from poverty, they start creating what I call adult toys to play around with but end up increasing the pains of the suffering masses.
Some of them set up road map for two years out of four-year tenure and, at the end of the day, there is nothing profound or of value for the country. Some just use projects as a smokescreen for stealing public funds and so there is general disenchantment with politicians and politics particularly with the two major parties that have been ruling us and unfortunately ruining us as well. And that is why the APC, which is ruling party at the federal level, has been unable to do something about killer herdsmen and there is complete devastation of the country. Now I think it is beginning to dawn on them that there is a third force, there is an alternative to these so-called two political parties where the only programme is how to spend money but I think money is beginning to fail. A young man seeking the ticket of one of the parties for governor told me how he paid N500million to his party Chairman and he still did not get the ticket. How can anybody take that huge amount from someone and then manipulate him out of the contest? This is why more people will come to the SDP. I suspect people want something better, they want a leadership they can trust, a leadership that has idea of how to govern the country and move it forward, a leadership that has integrity, honesty and fairness.
Some analysts say that with the influx of politicians you say are discredited into your party, the SDP may soon also be polluted. What is your perspective?
No. We shall adopt the onion principle. You know the onion has many layers but there is the core layer inside. Once the leadership of the SDP is that core, we can accept layers upon layers of people coming to join us. Fortunately, we are not new in Nigeria; we know most of the politicians in Nigeria and they also know us. Some of them we went to school together, some of them we served in the civil service together; when I was in the banking industry, some of them were there and I have been in politics now since 1990, we have been playing politics together and we know each other very well. So, once we have the knowledge, the rest is easy.
It is speculated that former VP Atiku and some former governors may be heading to your party. What is the situation? I expect every Nigerian politician to join the SDP. Even President Buhari himself, we welcome him. But we will do things according to the philosophy and principles and discipline of the SDP. What has been missing is discipline. You have many overbearing politicians, no party Chairman can discipline them because they are the ones who handpicked the Chairman and pay him. So who is the bloody Chairman to tell them what they don’t want to hear? But in the SDP, by the grace of God, we have a leadership that controls the party; a leadership that upholds the principles of the party regardless of who is involved. I think when everybody knows that, we begin to have a cleaner political environment.
Can you then tell us those who have signified their intention to join the party?
I can’t give you a list because you know how politics is played in Nigeria. The people l saw in Abuja on February 12 when we had our first meeting and last Thursday (March 1) were all jubilating, but don’t be surprised if some of them say they have not left their parties. If they still have some meetings with their parties, they won’t want the world to know that they have left. I don’t want to spark any controversy but the newspapers are publishing some names. Meanwhile, I signed the MoU on behalf of the SDP and Prof. Jerry Gana signed on behalf of the group he belongs to. It is not just PDP, there were people from other parties and, I can tell you, in another fortnight, I will be going to some northern states to receive a large crowd of people defecting from the so-called big parties to the SDP including former governors, former senators. When you say something is bad, it is bad. They are all sure that in the SDP they will be well treated.
The National Assembly reordered the 2019 general elections’ timetable set by INEC, a move just vetoed by President Buhari. What is your take?
We should do what is right, what is fair and what will deepen democracy in Nigeria. What will deepen democracy is that sequence of elections that will encourage parties to contest and win elections. If you start with presidential election, you know Nigeria mentality: Once someone wins the presidency, the bandwagon effect will follow; so small and new parties seeking to win the National and state House of Assembly elections will not have any chance. By so doing, you are creating a one-party state; if that is what you want, you can go ahead and do it. But if that is not what you want, let’s do what is sensible, reasonable and what we have done before, which is to start with the House of Assembly election. It is the most widespread, where everybody can play, run and fight; maybe 10 or 12 parties, we will have some victories here and there. If they say any party that does not win anything in the elections, in a democracy, is free to remain a party, but you are not going to contest elections because you are merely causing administrative confusion. You will be justified to say so because they have been given fair chance to try and win something. But when you start with the President, how many parties can contest the elections? And, by definition, you have ruled out 95% of the parties and that is undemocratic. That is why it should be House of Assembly election first, after that the House of Representatives, after that Senate, then governorship and lastly presidential. I think we have done that before and what INEC has done is an attempt to manipulate the elections and fraudulently upstage smaller parties.
In order words, you are in support of the reordering of the elections by the National Assembly? Absolutely. I was in an INEC meeting in Abuja to which party Chairmen were invited to meet National Electoral Commissioners and I told them that ‘you want to be fair and deepen our democracy? Assert your independence of government and if you want to prove that you are not being manipulated, then do the following: House of Assembly first, followed by House of Representatives, then Senate, then governorship and then presidential. That is the fairest and most sensible thing to do.
In your own assessment of the performance of President Buhari, do you think he deserves second term?
It is the absolute prerogative of President Buhari and his party to decide whether he should go for second term or not. Constitutionally, he is entitled to second term. It is his right and, if he chooses to go, it does not bother me. If he goes, it means we will meet him on the field on election day and we will defeat him. If he does not go, he will spare me that pain of having to defeat my good friend in the election. If his party brings somebody else, by the grace of God, we will defeat that person.
Let’s look at this from the perspective of his performance in office. Are you satisfied?
l think all of us agree that his performance has fallen below expectation because I know him as a military man. He was Commissioner for Petroleum under General Obasanjo regime and I was a Permanent Secretary in that government working in the Economic Department. So, based on my observation at the time, l have good reason to be disappointed now because his performance is low. Maybe his illness is part of the explanation, maybe being a military man not used to political manoeuvre and manipulations is the reason. Every chief executive, whether in government or in business, your first responsibility is to learn to manage your board. In government, the people that voted for you, the National Assembly are your board. If you are not able to manage your board successfully, you can’t succeed. Buhari has not been able to manage his board properly and that is why his performance has not been as good as we had expected.
Transparency International was quoted as saying that the Corruption Perception Index under Buhari government is low. What do you think?
Once your management is ineffective, corruption will thrive. He has not been able to manage the government and everything suffers. The federal bureaucracy is enormous. I believe the total number of the staff cannot be less than five million, soldiers, civil defense, police, immigration, regular civil servants, to manage that enormous workforce, the administrator has to work hard to know what is going on. When I became the Secretary to the Federal Government, I was horrified to see hundreds of files for me to attend to. But my experience in the bank for five years helped me. I had seven Permanent Secretaries working with me. I told them it will not be administration as usual ‘and any matter that comes to your table and you are capable of treating without embarrassing government you go ahead, and those you think you can’t attend to because you have no authority to deal with, bring it and you and I will read and we take a decision and you will take your file and go’. No file will sleep in my office and that was how we were able to do it for four years. So my table was clean and my head was clear and was free to think and it helped the President to tackle the difficult problems of the nation. Management is a difficult matter, and you need highly skilled people to manage a vast and complex system like Nigeria. I think it is beyond those who have tried to rule us in recent time.
Some students were kidnapped in Yobe State by Boko Haram and government keeps boasting that the terror group has been technically defeated. What is your perspective?
In a country where that had happened before, one will expect that we would have learned some lessons from Chibok. Apparently, we have not. In the areas where Book Haram is terrorising the people, a boarding school for girls is a soft target and can be attacked any day. So to discourage attacks, you need to put in place adequate security. Clearly, Boko Haram has not been defeated, but the frequency of attacks has reduced and that is some achievement. Globally, terrorist organizations don’t die easily and if they cannot longer fight battles, they break into smaller groups like guerrillas and continue fighting. All these boys fighting in the bush are deprived children who are hungry and uneducated, they do not see any hope for themselves and somebody comes around to preach a place in heaven to them and puts food in their stomachs and tells them ‘follow me to kill these oppressors’ and they will follow you. We should allow military campaign to go hand in hand with economic rehabilitation so that there will be no incentives for these boys to remain in terrorism or those that are not there to be recruited into terrorism.
Are you bothered by the alleged lopsidedness in the appointments made under the Buhari government?
It did not start with the present government. Three years ago, we held a meeting of the Yoruba Unity Forum led by Bishop Bolanle Gbonigi in Ibadan. We had done some research into the pattern of employment into the federal civil service. We pointed out that many departments were dominated by people who were not from the South-West and there were departments which had not been headed by any Yoruba person and we concluded that this could have been a deliberate thing. It is not a new thing and the new government just continued the practice. The idea of federal character is a serious matter. It means if you want to share 360 things and you have 36 states, that is approximately 10 per state. But to some government, like the one we have today, 50 will probably go to the state of the President, and then two or three to other states. This is not acceptable. Some people say that there must be affirmative action in the award of scholarship, in terms of admissions based on concessions but not in terms of bastardizing the system as in appointments.
That kind of bastardization has caused anger in the country. Nigeria belongs to all of us and my position is that federal character has so far failed to address lopsidedness and imbalance in several cadres in the public service because those who are operating the system, from the beginning, have focused entirely on the top level of the civil service. They bring people from northern civil service and promote them to level 15 and they will be there for four or five years and they move to the top. For the sake of fairness, at the point of entry, make it equal, maybe 10 per state; and every one of the 10 has basic qualifications and moves in the best possible way; that would be the most comprehensive federal character we would ever have. But when they bring somebody to level 15 who never went to university, his performance is substandard, although he may give himself any title.
As a leader of Afenifere, are you not concerned about the alleged marginalisation of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in the ruling APC after he had helped the party to capture power at the federal level?
We had in the past made our position clear through our leader, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, that Yoruba leaders believe that part of why he is treated that way is because of where he comes from; we might be wrong, but that is what we believe. He is a smart guy and a politician who knows what to do to favour him at every time and every stage in his life. He is not a baby, he has not said he needs my advice or tutoring or mentoring, so it is unnecessary to ask for an unsolicited advice on his behalf. So if tomorrow Asiwaju Tinubu decides to come to the SDP, he will be welcomed.
Of course yes; we were both members of the SDP before, so it will be ‘welcome home Bola Tinubu’.
Prof. Ango Abdullahi in a recent interview said herdsmen are fighting injustice hence the killings and maiming.
He is a man I know during the old SDP days when I was seeking the presidential nomination and he was backing General Shehu Yar’Adua. I have a lot of respect for him because he was a Vice Chancellor at a time but some of the things attributed to him, recently, surprised me. I cannot make sense in his claim that killer herdsmen are fighting injustice; you can say they are fighting because of a situation they cannot help, that will be nearer the truth. It is a fact that Lake Chad, which used to sustain hundreds of thousands of herds and farmers, has dried to less than 1/5 of its original size. Those that depend on the lake have to survive but you cannot rationalise the killings to say they do it because of injustice. Who brought the injustice? Is it the nature that dried up the lake? It is not injustice, he used the wrong word. He may say they are struggling with a very difficult situation and who should he blame?: state governments in the North who have responsibility for looking after their people. If Chad is drying up and desertification is advancing in the far North, there should be measures in place. So (Ango Abdullahi) should abuse governors of those states and not the hapless farmers of Benue or Ondo or Nasarawa or the South being attacked by herdsmen; they are not the ones doing any injustice to herdsmen, it is due to nature and failure of the state governments to provide good governance.
He went further to say that your kidnap by some herdsmen was nothing special.
He has every right to feel so but when I was kidnapped, the nation trembled. You will recall that soon after I came out, Yoruba leaders met in Ibadan and passed a resolution that if government failed to protect our people, the Yoruba will find a way out of the country. Nothing has ever pushed the Yoruba to that point; if despite that Ango Abdullahi feels that there is nothing special about the kidnap, good luck to him. I want to thank President Buhari because he sent the Inspector General of Police to Ondo State himself to go and look for me.
What is the way out of herdsmen crisis?
We are not dealing with something people have not done before. Almost every nation on earth eats cows as we do. But you don’t go to California and run into cattle on the tarmac. You don’t even go to Ghana and find cattle in the city square. We found the solution at the National Conference in 2014 that free grazing of cattle is out of date, disappeared over 200 years ago in most countries and that we cannot continue to live in the past. Ranching is the answer, not by walking your cattle from Kano to Akure and, by the time they get here, they are all bones, and that’s why they desperately needed my maize and cassava to become fresh again so that the cows could be sold at good prices. .
The nation’s debt incurred by PDP in 16 years was put at about N6 trillion but reports say it has jumped up to about N11trillion in three years of the Buhari administration.
I have not read the story and I will like to see. I am not like most Nigerians, not only because I am an economist. I was once the Finance Minister and l have knowledge of the internal workings of government. If there is a marching creation of assets, the debt is nothing to shout about. If I go to the bank and I borrow N500million and I build a factory that is producing and making profit and the debt is still there, is that a debt? But if I borrowed N500million and I have nothing to show for it, then there is a problem. It depends on what government did with the money they borrowed. If they used it to create assets, not necessarily commercial assets that can create income, but if they created assets that brought relief to the economy, for example, good roads, potable supply and electricity and people can run their businesses, there is nothing bad about it. But if the money is borrowed and you can’t identify the assets created with it, then there is a problem because you have to pay back the debt. First you have to service the debt, pay interest before it matures. And if people say they met empty an treasury, that is an empty statement. The treasury can never be empty because everyday revenue flows in and expenditure flows out. In public finance, those who say it are semi-illiterate. Everyday customs duties are being paid at the wharf and that money goes to the federal government. And you talk about Value Added Tax (VAT) every day as people buy things and the revenue goes into government coffers.
Vanguard