A former Commissioner in Lagos and the National Legal Adviser of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC in his usual bold style spoke on many issues including his rumoured governorship ambition and alleged rift between him and other top politicians in Lagos.
Excerpts:
As a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, is constituency project by legislators legal?
Well, to the best of my knowledge, I do not believe it is legal when it comes to the legislators implementing it themselves because that is essentially the role of the executives. The best they can do is to influence or dictate the location of development of such projects in their constituency. But when it comes to the issue of implementation, it is purely an executive responsibility.
But members of the National Assembly and some state Houses of Assembly collect constituency allowances in order to improve the lots of their constituency?
I am not aware of that, but it is even Lagos State that started constituency development projects, to the best of my knowledge, in those days, but I don’t know the current situation again. But I know that it is not something that in my own view, I will encourage under any guise, because there must be a continuous separation of power in the system.
In essence, are you advocating that the payment of constituency allowances to legislators should stop?
No, I don’t think they do payment to them directly. I don’t think so. I think and I am not being assertive in this regard. My understanding is that they normally would nominate or suggest the projects and the companies execute. And I don’t think the money is payable directly to the senators or the legislators.
The Supreme Court judgments on the Rivers, Taraba and Abia States respectively have come under scathing criticism, is it appropriate for the apex court to be giving excuses on why it had delivered such judgments?
The normal thing is, because of the time constraints, and because it is the final court, they are in a position to give their verdicts immediately, while they give reasons later. It is normal and legal, because they can’t write judgment immediately and the ones they have discussed and concluded and they can give you the conclusion, they will come up with the full reasons. That is why it is not proper for anybody to comment on the judgments until you have seen their reasons.
In your views, what do you see to the Supreme Court decisions in respect of Rivers, Taraba and Abia states respectively?
You see, unfortunately I have not really read anyone of them. So, I am not able to comment on them right now. I have not read anyone of them.
Internal crisis is brewing within the leadership of your party, APC, by some aggrieved chieftains, who feel they have been cheated one way or the other. What is the leadership of the APC doing to address this crisis before it escalates?
It is only normal that in a big party like ours, there must be some hiccups generally, but we are managing it as a family, so far, so good. There is nothing worrisome, in my own view, so far.
But when you look at the recent decision of the Supreme Court, which upheld that the Code of Conduct Tribunal could go ahead and try the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, over alleged false declaration of assets, while senators supporting him have been threatening fire and brimstone if he is removed, you could see that all is not well?
There is nothing to panic about and it is a rule of law that is in place. As far as I am concerned, anything that has to do with the rule of law, we must all embrace and promote it. And that is the only thing that can guarantee us in our development, our safety, our growth. So, it is the rule of law that is at play.
Your rumoured governorship ambition in Osun State has gone viral. How true is that?
In the first instance, the people that must be speculating it, I am sure have their own agenda or are mentally deranged because I truly do not even have any relationship with Osun State at all, in whatever capacity, other than that my party governs the place and I know the governor very well. So, apart from those two, nothing else! If in my state, Lagos, I have not chosen to be governor, why would I go to a state like Osun to want to be governor? So, I don’t know where they have gotten the information from and why they are peddling such malicious information.
And beyond that again, is the reality that, even in my own state, I used to ask people, let any human being come out and say that I am even interested in the governorship. Not all of us are cut out for this kind of a thing. Some of us are just interested in good governance. We don’t need to be in any position to add value to the system and personally, I have not been interested in it, anyway and I am still not inclined.
In essence, are you saying you have no lineage traceable to Osun?
I have none. The coincidence is even that I have not been to the state officially in the last one year. I have not even been there in the last one year because of my own programmes. I mean, one year ago. And that is why I said they must be mentally deranged, because any sane person would not even say that kind of a thing that is not factual at all. I have enough to occupy me between here (Lagos) and Abuja and what would I now go there to do?
But do you have a political ambition in the nearest future?
I don’t have. Some of us are not cut out for it. I am a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), as you know, I have a job and I am contented. What would I go and do there? How much would they pay me, if not to go and steal? Can any government afford to pay my salary or to take care of my own needs? They can’t. I am not cut out for it. I am not interested. The office can’t even take care of me.
I am even not ready to spend my hard earned money campaigning to come and take up responsibilities or to beg anybody. If you are genuine, you don’t need to spend money to be bribing people all over to come and vote for you, which is still the situation we find ourselves now – carrying money all over the places and I don’t have that kind of money to waste.
As an active politician, is it appropriate to just sit down and watch?
I am not a politician to start with. I have said it consistently, that I am not a nominal politician, not to talk of being an active one. Some of us are just in that corridor, because we are interested in good ngovernance. In due course, we are charting a new course for ourselves outside the said politics, because for me, which one concerns me? Am I looking for anything there? I am okay and I am contented where I am.
What’s your assessment of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in almost a year that he assumed office?
The administration is doing very well. Things that have been badly damaged, like that can’t be repaired in one day. He has put or enthroned sanity already in the system. Impunity is disappearing and gradually, we will get to where we want to be. So, people must learn that we will have to, in the first instance, reverse the deplorable state we met on the ground and start laying the proper foundation, before growth. And that is the way it should be, otherwise, if you don’t plan, you will fail. And that plan must be in place.
Like I said to you, some of us must also complement those in power, because some of them in government, that are supposed to be change agents can’t do it, alone except we help. For example, I in conjunction with some colleagues now, have our own platform. We have United Action for Change, where we add value to the system. We do everything that helps governance, at all levels and it is devoid of politics. It is purely an administrative thing and that is the way it should be, that we should contribute our own quota, without be in politics.
Politics, for me and some of my colleagues, is a no-go area, because of the intrigues, irresponsibilities and dishonesty involved in it, which also I know. Why would I go into it, especially when I have no political ambition? But unfortunately, we have too many political charlatans all around the whole place, who are scavengers in the corridors of power, who look for what they can eat.
For example, they are the same set of people that say: ‘Ah, Banire is fighting Asiwaju today; he’s fighting Ambode tomorrow o or that Fashola and Asiwaju don’t see eye-to-eye’. These are political charlatans. And even within our political system, as far, as I know, nobody is fighting anybody. And what would we be fighting over? Nobody is fighting anybody and I know so. We are not fighting for power.
We are not fighting for control. We are not fighting for leadership. We are not fighting for money. So, what is it? You know, some people can’t ‘succeed’ in their lives without bringing in such manipulation or maneuver and intrigues. And that is why they must lie against the people all over the whole place, turn each against the other all over the whole place. But within my knowledge, nobody is quarreling with anybody.
If offered a federal appointment, wouldn’t you accept?
I have been offered and I am not attracted.
You declined?
So far, that’s my position. It’s no news.
This interview was first published by THISDAY NEWSPAPER
