By Daniel Kanu
Lawyer and human rights activist, Mr Monday Ubani, a lawyer, is dissatisfied with the President Muhammadu Buhari’s APC-led government, citing instances of inability to fulfill his promises.
The ex-Nigerian Bar Association vice president, in this exclusive chat with Sunday Sun spoke on sensitive national issues, including the president of Igbo extraction in 2023, invasion of Justice Mary Odili’s residence, lack of robust opposition party and assessment of Buhari’s leadership, among others. Excerpt:
Let’s begin by getting your view on the evasion or perhaps siege to your sector again, the judiciary, now at the residence of a senior Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Mary Odili?
Of course, it’s a sign of impunity in the system that we have always been seeing from this government. Recall that the homes of judges were invaded in 2016, then it was the DSS and before you know it, they used exparte order to remove Onnoghen contrary to the earnest provisions of the constitution. And most of the judges they invaded their homes, there were allegations that they have property worth several millions, that they have foreign currencies all over the banks, uptil today no judge has been convicted of that allegation and the next thing was that they went after Onnoghen. The rumour that time was that they were going after Onnoghen because of the election that was getting closer and people dismissed it and before you know it they removed him, they cleared him out of the way purposely because of the election. Uptil now Onnoghen has not been convicted, uptil now there is no judge whose homes were invaded that has been convicted, meaning there was really nothing against them, all of them went scot-free, nobody has been prosecuted, nobody has been held accountable. So, as we edge towards 2023, there is this allegation again that they want to intimidate certain institutions, including the judiciary so that the judiciary will be there at their beck and call to do their biddings. They have started now with the evasion of the second most senior judge in the country, and then you saw the inconsistencies in the affidavit and the search warrant. So, it shows there is another sign coming up again to actually intimidate the judiciary. But we should not allow it and we will not allow it.
You have said we should not allow it, but it appears that Nigerians have become docile that these things happen and the people still keep quiet and tolerate while the government have their way…?
In this one we are not going to be weak about it, we will not tolerate it further, whoever that is responsible we want undiluted investigation and we don’t want investigation that will be carried out by the same people that are being accused. The Inspector General of Police (IGP), said he has set up a committee, but who and who are members of the so-called committee in order to be sure that those indicted, the people will be bold enough to hold them accountable? So, I am saying in effect that we need an independent investigation in this matter; we need an investigation that will be done independently. I think that the best thing that can be done is for either a judicial panel, a retired justice can handle it and then find out what actually transpired. But the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) also wants to carry out its independent investigation.
Do you really think that the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has provided vibrant opposition that can jolt the ruling party and by extension taking over power from the APC in 2023?
The PDP has not lived up to expectation, you know they had a problem with their own house, the house has not been in order, but since they have had their national convention and was able to navigate through their problems without much ado, I think it’s time for them to play serious, vibrant opposition. If they say they want to take over from the APC government they must play the correct politics, the correct opposition, come up with facts to make this government be on the edge. Definitely, this government is becoming too lawless. There is no way we can keep retaining a government that is so lawless. The way things are happening you will know that this is how not to run a democracy, we are not running a democracy at all. Court orders are not being obeyed, there is so much lawlessness. You saw how they carried Obi Cubana, kept him in detention without proper explanation as to why they are keeping him. You should have done your investigations thoroughly before picking him. Now, he has fulfilled conditions of the bail by bringing all that were expected from him and they still detained him not minding his rights too. So, there is so much impunity. It may not necessarily be the so-called issue of money laundering, they just want to embarrass and at the end nothing will come out of it and nobody will be punished. So, I think something should be done.
Let’s zero down to the issue of a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction in 2023. How feasible is it because there are those that believe that the Igbo are not speaking with one voice at this crucial time?
Any person that is going for the presidency of the country in 2023 either from Igbo extraction or any other region without addressing some of the crucial problems in this country the person is on a suicide mission. Anyone who takes over the presidency of Nigeria in 2023 without addressing the structural imbalance, you know we are not operating a proper federal system, without addressing this issue of proper federalism for the country and addressing some of the deficiencies which are so many and the person takes over, with this high spate of insecurity, economic collapse in the country etc, without these issues being addressed that person will be on a suicidal mission. If that person enters there with black hair he will develop white hairs overnight, Nigerian problems are too many. I don’t envy anybody strategizing for the position, but for the Igbo, if Nigerians really want to look at equity and justice just the way they did in 1999, when it was very obvious that the Yoruba were wronged by the killing of Chief M.K.O Abiola, Nigerians came together, Babangida has to travel all the way to Abeokuta and told Obasanjo that he should come out that they felt that they have wronged the Yoruba and that they can redress the injustice by giving the presidency to the Yoruba because they had no reason to have killed Abiola. Abiola won that election. So that was clearly a sense of justice. Of course, even though Obasanjo was not their choice, but for the fact he is a Yoruba man, at least there was some level of acceptance and then the agitations were reduced considerably. So, if Nigerians still have sense of justice and want to… in the scheme of things the only region that has not been fairly treated in terms of having access to the highest leadership in the country is the Igbo. So, you can say, let’s consider them, but the Igbo must also get their acts right. This issue of the IPOB trying to cripple the economic activities of the Southern Eastern region and all that cannot put the Igbo in a very good light in terms of what we are agitating for, so we must put our house in order and then agree on one of the intelligent, upward looking and progressive-minded persons that will go for the presidency of the country. There are so many of them who we can agree among ourselves. For instance, somebody like Prof Moghalu, Prof Pat Utomi etc, there are many others, young and vibrant that can run this country very well if given the opportunity.
You have painted some sad picture on the situation on the ground like insecurity, the collapse of the economy among others, but the government thinks contrary, insisting that its leadership is on top of the challenges…?
(Cuts in) You, do you agree with them? Don’t Nigerians see and know good governance? Well, I don’t agree with them, the point is that they made promises when they were coming on the issue of security, for instance; today our lives are more insecure, everybody can see it. They made promises of turning around the economy; you can see where the economy is today. What is the exchange rate between dollar and the naira? You see how many people who are unemployed, I understand now that diesel is over N300 per litre, what of cooking gas? Everything has tripled in terms of price, there is nothing that the price is not very high at the moment. They have messed up the economy that is the truth. So, they have failed in all the promises they made. I was one of those that supported President Buhari, I don’t know whether you know the role I played in bringing Buhari. I was all over the place trying to campaign for a change they marketed to us that Nigeria will be Eldorado. All the promises they made they failed. Is it in the issue of infrastructural development? I went to Ibadan on Sunday for a Court of Appeal case and you can see the road, terrible. From Lagos you still encounter hold up here and there. That road has been on for how many years now, for six years this government has been around, 20 years since democracy returned, we cannot fix Ibadan-Lagos road when we have all the resources. It is so shameful. There is no road; you cannot say you want to travel to Abuja or that you want to travel to the East and you find the entire journey very comfortable like you get in some other clime. Here travelling is punishment when you embark on any. There is no any parameter we can judge this government and say they have excelled in this or that area; is it the educational sector? Is it the health sector? The president still goes for medical treatment abroad. Name one area, sector that you can beat your chest and say, this government has excelled? Being a stakeholder who was instrumental to bringing and supporting this government, my level of expectation has not been met. They have failed not only me, but Nigerians.