What is your view on the general conduct of the presidential and parliamentary elections?
Generally, I think the conduct of the election in some parts of the country followed due democratic processes. In some other parts of the country, people took laws into their hands and the election cannot be described as free and fair. And you can see the reactions of the South-East and South-West; where people were kidnapped, results were written against the will of the people. By and large, the totality of everything is that, fair enough the results have come out; the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the results.
I think the best option for whoever is dissatisfied with what INEC has announced is to go to a legally constituted tribunal which has been set up and sworn-in by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), so that we don’t heat the polity by going to the streets to demonstrate. Whatever grievances you have, gather your facts, gather your evidence and make them available to your lawyers, engage the services of professionals to put your case across before the tribunal so that we don’t create room for miscreants to take over; because they are political jobbers who didn’t want to leave, and their interest was to create chaos, commotion and possibility exist for mayhem to be unleashed on persons, then these persons will then embark on their business of supplying arms and ammunitions for the purpose of eliminating the citizens of this country.
How would you react to the election results tendered by the Rivers state Collation Officer in view of the fact that the opposition APC had alleged electoral irregularities in the conduct of the elections?
As at now, INEC has declared that the result from Rivers state is the result.
INEC has declared that the results from the various states of the federation is the result. Only agents or bodies authorized by law to announce the results of election is INEC and INEC has done the job. The next stage in our legal process is post election legal proceedings. So, for those of us who have been doing election matters; any aggrieved person who was a candidate at the election who feels very strongly that he or she has been shortchanged in the victory that he deserves, should proceed immediately with the evidence and go to the election tribunal that had been set up.
Even those in Rivers state, particularly those who are complaining about Senatorial and House of Representatives elections, they have the right to go to the election tribunal.
Remember that there is a change in our climate now. You know those people were doing so with the view that they would be able to have the government at the centre. Even though we run a federal system of government; our system of government appears to have been unitarilised. It has become a unitary system where command structure comes from the federal level. Mark you; the Inspector General of Police, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Air Staff and all of them are answerable to the commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.
Now, the tendency is that civility will take over rationality because the President-elect I think should not condone any act of brigandage or any act of lawlessness or any act of subversion of the will of the people. Because if the will of the people was subverted, he wouldn’t be President and Commander-in-Chief elected to rule over this country for the next four years. He should learn from his three times experience that the will of the people like he rightly pointed out was allowed to prevail.
My admonition to all our security agents and political leaders is that it is no longer going to be business as usual; and so you must be circumspect, you must be careful because there is a provision in our laws for violators of electoral laws to be jailed. And I think that the President-elect and his vice should put in place a machinery to deal with all those who are involved in one form of electoral malpractices or the other, even those who may have done it in their favour; that is the principle of the rule of law.
The rule of law is blind, it does not see, the rule of law is not partial. So, we should come to practical application of the law and my appeal is that the president-elect as he has also said that the rule of law will apply. It will not know those who are big or those who are small. Every person will be on the same pedestal of rule of law.
That is a good sign coming and I have no doubt in me that my brother, Professor Osinbajo (SAN) who I congratulate has become the first Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) to be elected to the highest office of the Vice-President; should use his wealth of experience as the Attorney General (AG) of Lagos state to revolutionalise our legal system in the manner he did when he was the AG of Lagos state. And that also means that they should shop for an AGF that is credible; that is worth his salt that can speak truth to them; that does not play partisan political consideration in the issues involving justice administration.
What is your reaction to the Peoples Democratic Party’s agent, Mr. Godsday Orubebe’s attempt to truncate the electoral process at the INEC National Collation Centre in Abuja?
It is rather unfortunate. Like INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega rightly pointed out; Elder Godsday Orubebe is a statesman in his own right.
A former Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; who was given the responsibility to develop his own part of the country where he comes from which is South-South because he was the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs. Rather than giving us his stewardship of what he did as a minister developing the Niger Delta, with the greatest respect to him, he was exhibiting what appears to be a parochial interest. He exhibited attitude that is only best fit for a motor garage tout. And it was an embarrassment to the entire nation. And the international community looks at us as a laughing stock.
I read in the papers that he has atoned for his sins. Who are we not to forgive him? Having said that, what he did that day was an attempt to subvert the will of the people. It was an attempt to bring this country to its knees. What he did was wrong and it may be a criminal conduct, but was it actualized, was it consummated to a level that you can get the active rules together to make it a criminal offence? I don’t think we should press the issue beyond the level of condemnation which all well meaning Nigerians have done including the press.
How would you assess the performance of the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega?
Let me commend Professor Jega. It was unprecedented for a man that was literally on fire not to react against those who put the fire. But despite all the provocation; including sponsorship of demonstrations against his nationalistic and patriotic disposition to ensure credible and fair election, people still insulted him, they keep calling him all sorts of names, including saying he was partial. And he maintained his cool
. As far as I am concerned, Prof. Jega was the man of the moment in this election. And posterity will judge him as been one of those few Nigerians that resisted temptation and refused to be bought over and conducted the election credibly too in a volatile society where a former President said, ‘even if you bring Jesus Christ, it will be difficult to conduct a free and fair election.’ Jega has proved that theory wrong that a Nigerian can conduct election without allowing himself to be bought over. So, I commend Jega and all well-meaning Nigerians should commend Jega for doing a good job. He must not succumb to any petition coming from anywhere for him to rewrite whatever result.
Whoever feels aggrieved by the results as declared by INEC should go to the tribunal. His obligation is to respect the outcome of a court decision. Once any of his election result is upturned, well and good; it will not be the first and it will not be the last.
What should be the agenda for the in-coming government?
They have set it for themselves. One; tackling corruption. Two; insecurity and three, unemployment. But in the area of tackling corruption, that is where my greatest interest lies. Of the three items on the agenda, the most fundamental is the tackling of corruption. And you cannot tackle corruption without an effective and efficient judiciary; effective and efficient legal system; that is where Osinbajo and Buhari have the Hercules task of reorganizing not only the security apparatus, but such establishments as the EFCC, ICPC, the police and the ministry of justice.
They must look for a legal practitioner of credit, a legal practitioner of repute, a legal practitioner that can stand the test of time; and resist all manner of temptations who will ‘call a spade a spade.’ Someone who will look at General Buhari and Professor Osinbajo face to face, eyeball to eyeball and say, ‘Your Excellency, if we must tackle corruption, that man in your government, that man that is your friend that has infringed this law must be prosecuted
and these are the evidence of the prosecution if we must stop corruption.
The government itself must lead by example. And that means that all these contracts that had been inflated, all these roads that had been inflated, the percentage had already been taken up-front; those companies must be made to go back to site and work, because they should not tell us. And when they come to tell us that, ‘look, this contract for N30 billion, what I was paid was N10 billion even I had collected N30 billion.’ Those people should be prosecuted, because the giver and the taker are equally guilty.
General Buhari should not be afraid that people should not go to jail. We must ensure that people go to jail legitimately. If there is no need for people to go to jail, there ought not to be prison services established. There is a law setting up the prison service, the police, the army, EFCC and the ICPC. The lawmaker also knows that in the society upon which we operate, there are people who cannot conform to the norms. There are right places reserved for people like that. The right place for such people is the prison.
Now, we must also note that whoever becomes Attorney General must not abuse the power of ‘knowledge prosecute’; by advising that, ‘look, Your Excellency this man supported your coming to power, although he has committed an office, let’s find a middle cause.’ Because the reason why people violate laws in Nigeria with impunity is that there is no example made. We don’t enforce our laws; corruption is thriving in this country not because the Nigerian society is the most corrupt society, but because the law against corruption is not being enforced. Even at filling stations, people change metre.
It may shock you to know that there is law called ‘Weight and Measurement Act’. That you cannot reduce the quality or quantity of goods you sell; you cannot adulterate it. But we do so with reckless abandon. Even people are heartless to the extent that they adulterate drugs to give to sick people.
So, in trying to fight corruption, they must ensure that the judiciary is well funded. They must also look right inside the eyes of judicial officers. There are those who are corrupt; they must be shown the way out. The recruitment processes to the Bench must be looked into.
Our procedural law must be looked into, because justice is being delayed in this country. You file a case; you are not getting justice in court; that is why people resort to jungle justice.
I will advise them to take the issue of fighting corruption seriously. And once corruption is fought to a standstill, there will be no insecurity, there will be no unemployment. Because the money used in an inflated contract could as well been used to give jobs to unemployed youths.
So, for identifying corruption as the hydra-headed monster in this country and preparing to fight it, they should do it well. But they are going to face a lot of challenges. Those who are corrupt will fight them with their ill-gotten wealth and that is why they must not shy away from sending them to prison. Because if you make an example that is founded on law, not example founded on partisan political consideration;
let it not be only members of the opposition parties that are sent to prison. Let it be across board. Speaking for myself, there are no differences in terms of persons who man our political parties in this country except few. Therefore, corruption cannot be fought with bare hands. Corruption can only be fought by well established, well funded judiciary, well funded security agencies who would have gathered information, evidence, gathered facts before proceeding to effect arrest.
We must do away with a system where we arrest before we look for evidence. It must be the other way round. Let us have our evidence before effecting arrest. And we must avoid trial by television; trial by press, trial by advertisement. We must go straight to the point of getting people who have been arrested and convicted. And you cannot convict when you do not even have evidence before effecting arrest.
The kingdom of corruption takes away every other thing away from you. The kingdom of righteousness brings every other thing in place, including employment and security. And I see some of these insecurity issues going around as being the product of corruption; a product of greed. Otherwise, why should a man go and bunkering, because he wants to live like people who are corrupt in government who are living above their means.
We must discourage ostentatious living of public office holders. For instance, you are just a permanent secretary and you are just acquiring property here and there; you should be able to tell us your source of income.
