Chris Agu is an activist of the first order. He lived for about 30 years in parts of northern Nigeria, and was at some point the northern director of the Amnesty International. He saw it all during the struggle against military dictatorship. In this interview with MAGNUS EZE, Agu speaks on the current travail of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen among other issues.

What’s your take on the recent allegation against the Chief Justice of Nigeria, including the Federal Government’s approach towards it?

I don’t have sympathy for people in authority when they run into troubled waters because if a poor man or somebody who is not in authority commits offence in Nigeria, it is not celebrated at all. If anybody in authority commits any offence, he becomes a suspect, people should not cry, people should not start making noise. It is left for that person to come out and prove that he or she is innocent. So, if the government says that the CJN has questions to answer, why not go ahead and answer the questions and show the world that, yes, as a custodian of the law in the country that his hands are clean. So, I don’t want to be discussing this kind of issue because these are people that are supposed to show the light and prove that there is no skeleton in their cupboard by living above board. It should not be an issue that will be setting Nigeria back. If it is in the developed countries or countries where people are patriotic, if you accuse a person and if the person is aware that the issue against him is true, the person will quietly resign. But here, we will start calling those that have benefited from our position to start making noise. So, let him go on and answer whatever charge against him and prove that he is innocent.

Are you not seeing the political colouration, especially as elections are just few weeks away?

A matter can come up any time against anybody and that’s why he is a public officer, anything public can come up any time whether the election is tomorrow or not. That’s why people have to be very careful when you are occupying any position. People are watching you and if these things they are saying about him is wrong or false, let him come out clean; these things are not supposed to be dragged please whether election is today or tomorrow; any case can come up once you’re a public officer; he is accountable to every Nigeria.

What would you say about the impending titanic battle between President Muhammadu Buhari and former Vice President Atiku Abubukar?

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My advice to Nigerians is that they should not sell their police dog and purchase monkey; if you do that or try it, we will be in a very big problem. You see, if President Buhari completes his four years again, then the Igbo people have hope and chance, and Buhari has assured us that it is just four years and after the four years by 2023, we have competent Igbo people to come up to be the president of Nigeria and I have been telling people that from now to four years, something positive or negative must happen. I don’t know how it would be, but this is a revelation, let us allow Buhari to complete four years. Again, Atiku has a problem that he has not solved; sometime in 2005 to be precise, I said that the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua’s spirit was fighting Atiku and up till now, he has not done anything to solve that problem. Betraying your mentor and your master while Gen. Yar’Adua was in detention, Atiku was parleying with Sani Abacha. Some of our members contacted him to support the amnesty work when we were holding what we called Amnesty International Urgent Action; we were calling for urgent release; that Gen. Yar’Adua should not be executed. Atiku refused to support the human rights moves. For instance, I visited Gen. Yar’Adua at Abakiliki prison and that was two months before his death. Yar’ Ádua’s widow, Hajia Binta is still there. That time, Atiku told those that visited him that Abacha warned him to support him else he will deal ruthlessly with him; that his children were still small and he didn’t want to die early. So, such a man that abandoned his master and was participating in the politics of that time, the late Gen. Yar’Adua of course, is not happy with him.  That was why I said in 2005, watch it, that Atiku will continue to run into troubled waters; politically, he will never find his feet. I said it and it was published in The Sun Newspaper then. You can check from 2005 till date whether Atiku has stabilised at all. He left PDP, when PDP gave ticket to the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, Atiku left the party and contested in another party and lost; he came back and contested primaries with Buhari under APC, lost and he went to PDP, so you can see that what I said that time is what is happening to this man and he never cared to know how to solve these problems. So, the civil society in Nigeria should know; it’s just that we have poor memory, if not, people are supposed to know the kind of man Atiku is; he can’t lead Nigeria to any place, he is not firm and it is unfortunate that somebody like Peter Obi who is our eye, who is loved by the Igbo is his running mate to him. But, let the will of God happen in Nigeria.

You believe that the South East will produce the next President of Nigeria but the Yoruba people are angling for it too?

The Yoruba should wait; they should wait in the spirit of fairness, equity and justice. They should wait until the Igbo might have taken their turn although in politics, every zone has the right to say it’s their turn. You will be surprised that when that time comes, somebody from the North will say it’s their turn. Even now under this political dispensation, you can see Oby Ezekwesili; she has come out; Kingsley Moghalu and many other people from other zones like Donald Duke have come out. But one problem with Nigeria is that they believe that it’s either APC or PDP, they are not thinking of APGA, they are not thinking of other political parties that have quality and competent presidential candidates. That shows that even we as a country, we are not yet ready for the right people to be in government; we depend on two political parties. And we have tried PDP for 16 years, let them rest, let us try another political party; there’s an adage that says when you marry two husbands, you will be able to know the one that is a nagging one and the one that is a caring husband. So, the Igbo come 2023 by the grace of God, we are going to produce the president of Nigeria. Go and mark it, when the time comes, the Yoruba, they also love our people, they will soft-pedal. When 2023 comes, if they deny us president, something will happen; mark my words, in 2023, if the rest of Nigeria denies the Igbo president of this country, something will happen.

Over time, you have celebrated Bola Ahmed Tinubu, what gave rise to that?

Since 2005, I always go to church with friends and members of Enugu Youth Movement to give thanks to God for giving Nigeria Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu; he is a gift to mankind, gift to Nigeria. When I was in AD, I contested for the Chairmanship of Kaduna North Local Government Area of Kaduna State in 2004. I discovered that Senator Tinubu was the only man left in AD that was interested in the welfare of the party nationwide.  So, what he did for us in Kaduna made me vow that such a personality, a gift to Nigeria, must be celebrated or appreciated by going to God in prayer to protect him to fight all his battles, spiritually and physically. Since 2005, we have been doing this and even when I relocated to Enugu, at Heavenly Grace Mission here in Enugu, every year, we go to give God thanks for Senator Tinubu especially during his birthday. We go there to pray for him. He is a man you can trust, he’s a man that when he is holding anything in common with you or sharing idea with you, he will be thinking on how to improve you not how to defraud or cheat you. Let also say during our Amnesty International days, those days when NADECO and other activists were hunted by the Abacha Government, Tinubu although he went on exile, was very supportive to the cause. So, when I learnt that he has taken over the campaign of President Buhari as the Chairman of his campaign, I said God thank you because this is a man of good luck.