Ahmed Raji SAN was at the just concluded Annual General Conference (AGC) of the Nigerian Bar Association in Owerri where he delivered a lecture on fighting terrorism. In this interview with AMEH EJEKWONYILO, he speaks on political advertisement, the EFCC and clamour by lawyers who are members of the National Assembly to be awarded SAN as well as other sundry issues
Should lawyers who are members of the National Assembly also be considered for the award of SAN as they are presently clamoring for such?
Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) as an award has its origin in what is known as Queens Counsel (QC) in England. A few commonwealth countries also adopted it and a good number of them no longer have it. If you go back to England there is no precedent whereby either a member of the House of Lords or member of the House of Commons, simply because of his delivery or output in parliament has been made a QC.
The Legal Practitioners Act clearly delimits and brings out the essence of SAN. It has to do with highest distinction in the practice of law. If you say lawyers in NASS should be awarded the title of SAN, perhaps Accountants too in the NASS will ask to be given ICAN or one of the professional certificates and it will go on. We may find other ways of rewarding those of them who have performed well in the NASS such as by re-electing them or by getting them appointed or elected to other bigger offices. As far as professional career is concerned, I think it will be a little bit confusing. It will bring some disharmony into the system and once that one goes in, nobody can really know when it will stop.
What is your take on the EFCC as it seems that the vibrancy is no longer there and it is dead?
The EFCC is not dead, it is working, and perhaps showmanship has reduced because that is not the way to do an investigation. May be they are doing it in the correct way now and they are being silent in the manner they go about their work. Because we are not reading about them daily does not mean they are not working so I disagree with you.
Is there any need to educate politicians and voters on political advertisement?
There is the need to educate politicians and voters on political advertisement and this is where the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) and INEC should collaborate to sensitize the people before the real activities will start.
Section 221 of the 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN) provides that no organization apart from a political party should ask for votes. Do you see any wrong doing with what Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) and others are doing?
TAN is not asking for votes. What it is saying is that “you should come out to contest”. As a pressure group or whatever their name is, it is within their right to say that. You have some youth vanguards of some prominent political parties who say we want Mr. A to come out and contest because Mr. A is this and that. So long as they are not asking for votes yet because the campaign is not on yet. All they are saying is that Mr. A should come out to contest.
Invariably are they not also saying that don’t vote for Mr. B and Mr. C?
What they are saying is that this person should come out to contest. That may be endorsing him. I can go on pages of Newspapers and say that I like Mr. B to be president of Nigeria. I can say that any moment and any time. That does not mean that I am saying “come and vote for him”.
Campaigning for someone to be voted for is different from asking somebody to come out and contest.
Campaigning for votes for someone is not the same as saying we are urging on Mr. A to come out to contest. They are two different things. If I now go out from town to town and say vote for Mr. A or Mr. B, then that is campaign but saying that Mr. A should please come out is a different thing. What they are doing is like an appetizer before the main meal. They have not crossed the line. The main meal is the campaign, what we see now is like an appetizer.
Are there penalties for the violation of political advertising in Nigeria?
There is a body charged with monitoring political activities and dishing out appropriate sanctions and that is the INEC. It is INEC that should be called upon to look into the enabling laws and ascertain whether what these people are doing amount to a violation of the extant rules and regulation but I do not think that President Goodluck Jonathan has done anything wrong because I have not seen him in any of those rallies. I have not seen any political party sponsoring it to the best of my knowledge. For people asking Mr. A or Mr. B to come out, I don’t think Mr. A or Mr. B is to be blamed. You only need to be wondering how idle or unoccupied are those individuals, but back to the question the appropriate authority is INEC who should be asked to look into the extant regulations if they are weak, or perhaps INEC has not contemplated what is happening now may be they need to give further guidelines and streamline it properly to take care of possible abuses of political advertisement if it is not in tandem with the law.
During the last NBA Annual General Conference (AGC) you delivered a lecture on combating terrorism, how do we combat terrorism with the law?
There are several ways the law may be used to stem the tide of terrorism. The law may be used as an instrument to discourage act of terrorism. The law may be used in a way that it would give us a justice sector that is able to quickly and promptly attend to any terrorism issue.
The law may be used if we know the root cause of terrorism, to address the root cause. If it is due to poverty, the law may be used to redistribute wealth.
Bringing it down to Nigeria, how do we go about it?
Few suggestions and one of it is to clearly ascertain what is the root cause of terrorism in Nigeria? Is it because of the disconnect between the rulers and the ruled or is it because we have porous borders or is it because of the fall of Gadhafi and mercenaries are now let loose.
Is it because of what is happening in North African countries or is it because of the prediction that Nigeria is going to terminate in 2015? When we sit down frankly and look at it or is it a political gimmick to unseat the president and for some other people to come in? These are several areas to be looked into and then come in with legislation.
