•Says Tinubu’s large cabinet wasteful, not in national interest
From Ogbonnaya Ndukwe, Aba
Eminent lawyer and Octogenarian leader of Igbo Lawyers Association (ILA), Chief Chuks Muoma, (SAN), has said that with 48 ministers and many more Special Advisers and Assistants, President Bola Tinubu has been blowing away funds that would have been deployed to cushion the worrying hardships on common Nigerians. He also called on the president to come clean and tell the world the truth about his academic records, to douse the negative attention, the issue had given Nigeria in the eyes of the international community.
President Bola Tinubu has been in the saddle for five months. Are Nigerians seeing any change from the programmes of his predecessor in office, towards turning around the economy? Do you see a move in that direction?
With due respect to Mr President, in my own opinion, I have not seen any change and true to my earlier prediction, age is not in his favour. To be the president of Nigeria, youth must be a necessary advantage. Tinubu must be either in his late 70s or early 80s in age and given the circumstances of our environment, I don’t expect him to achieve much. I said it earlier that to rule Nigeria, one needs to be youthful and strong. Nigeria is the largest black nation in the world, with a population of over 200 million. She cannot be handled by an ailing old man that may be in his late 70s or early 80s. As far as I am concerned, Tinubu, being president, is a fulfilment of personal ambition and self aggrandisement. It is not a plus for Nigeria, especially at the present condition of our dear country. It is really a minus.
Do you think he has been able to assemble the right team to pull Nigeria out of the woods; that’s talking about his cabinet?
With 48 ministers in a failing economy, I see the move as unacceptable to the Nigerian masses. Currently, we are managing a single economy, the oil. To feed that team, everybody therefore, is looking towards the oil which is produced in Eastern Nigeria. The money that will be used in developing this country, the president will now use in paying salaries and allowances of his bloated appointees, providing comfort for a battalion or a brigade of ministers and government officials.
That is not good economics. We ought to conserve what we have and use it judiciously for the benefit of every Nigerian. We need to provide services and infrastructure. So, appointing 48 ministers, 500 ministers, etc., does not help. Even if it is 50, it does not help. We are draining our resources and it could be a great burden on our revenue. I know what I’m talking about. So, I don’t know why he got such a battalion of officials. I don’t know. He, only, knows what he wants to achieve. We are watching him. So far, four months have gone, I haven’t seen any change in Nigeria. We are still where we were before he came into office. Let’s hope that in another four months or thereabouts, we’ll begin to see the results of his large cabinet. But so far, nothing has changed. Majority of the people in this country are suffering.
Experts blame the current hardships in the country on the hasty withdrawal of fuel subsidy. What’s your reaction?
That’s why I said I’ve not seen any change in the condition of our people, Nigerians, since Tinubu became president. Fuel subsidy? I’m not sure, but it was or it is being rumoured that his family is in fuel distribution and sales. That I’m unable to confirm, but the rumour is rife that his family is in distribution and marketing and marketing of oil. If that is proved, then he has served himself and his family first and not the nation.
Let’s look at the brouhaha over the alleged certificate forgery and other similar accusations levelled against the President by the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25 election, Atiku Abubakar. What does it portend for the country before the international community?
I know that my First School Leaving Certificate (FSLC) is with me. I have my Cambridge School Certificate for secondary education. I have my degrees and certificates for law qualifications. I don’t know why anyone should ever be careless with his or her educational certificates, why there should be doubts on the authenticity or existence of one’s academic certificates. I’ve preserved mine, all my certificates – secondary, university, call to bar. I have all of them. In fact, I went as far as laminating them so that it’s only fire that can destroy them. So, why should someone raise doubts over his academic qualifications? That doesn’t augur well for good leadership.
Does it have any moral lesson for young Nigerians? What does it portend for upcoming children of the country?
It portends bad example for upcoming Nigerians, bad example for the younger ones. Academic qualifications are not what anyone should joke with. I don’t know why there should be to and fro on the issue, going forward and backward about academic qualifications of Tinubu. It is for him to make all these things public. If he is seeking public office, he should make his academic qualifications public for people to know. There should be no doubt about them. The doubts that exist now were caused by him by being shady about the schools he attended and the academic qualifications he obtained. This will certify that he went to primary school, had his FSLC, attended secondary school, university and present the certificates he earned to the authorities.
He has to convince us, Nigerians and the world, with his WASC or GCE and all others. I have mine and I am 83 years old, having preserved them from childhood. So, why won’t he have his own and show them to us to confirm that he actually went to school?
As a senior lawyer, what is your take on the role of the judiciary?
Yes, I am a senior lawyer with about 52 years in practice. I’ll tell you that anything is possible in Nigeria. In civilised countries of Europe and America, the judiciary may be the last hope of the common man, but in Nigeria, it is not. May be in the United Kingdom, Germany, United States of America, Canada, France and so on, it is, but here in Nigeria, people get justice if they appease the mood of whoever is in charge.
Igbo leaders, including governors of the five states in the region, recently held an Economic and Security conference, where they further called on Ndigbo in the Diaspora to come home to invest. As a proponent of the “Aku Ruo Ulo” call, why do you think people are still reluctant to bring their businesses home?
You know that I have spearheaded the call for our people in the Diaspora who have business establishments outside Igboland to come home and invest. However, it is unfortunate that the Igbo are not appreciative of what God has given them in their own land, the attributes that make us different. If one may ask, what are in those places that Ndigbo go to invest in which are not found in our own homeland? Is it land, water, air, sunshine, soul, etc? This is why other Nigerians regard the Igbo as being greedy, not satisfied with what they have; like Oliver Twist, asking for more. When I came back from the United Kingdom, about 53 years ago or thereabouts, on finishing my further education at the Nigeria Law School, I had a very great temptation to stay in Lagos. I resisted those temptations because I didn’t want to grow outside Igboland. If I had wanted wealth at all costs, I would have preferred to live outside Igboland. I would have stayed in the UK where I would be comfortable, but I felt the pride of Igboness, real Igbo and decided to come back home. Today, I am staying in Igboland and I am not a poor man. In every standard in the world, I am not a poor man. I have enough for my needs. So, I don’t see anything wrong with someone building factories in Igboland, an Igboman establishing his trade in his homeland, instead of doing so outside. I don’t know what they are looking for. I’m contented with what I have with a sense of security at home in Igboland.
Despite your calls as leader of Igbo Lawyers Association (ILA) that the federal government release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the detained IPOB leader, he is still being held even with an order of the Appeal Court. How do you react to the politics surrounding Kanu’s continued detention?
This boils down to what I have been saying that other Nigerians hate the Igbo. Igbo phobia is the in thing. What crime did Nnamdi Kanu commit? Even the judiciary said, let the young man go. Still, the political leaders of Nigeria, say they won’t let him go. They are holding him as a political prisoner. If he committed any crime, let him be charged to court, tried and be given the opportunity of defending himself against the charge preferred against him. Why are they holding him? It’s because he is an Igboman. Our position, the Igbo Lawyers Association, has remained that the man committed no crime and should be released forthwith from unjust imprisonment without trial, without sentence, without conviction. He should be released. Did he say anything more than Sunday Igboho of the Yoruba nation who we know has been released? “Let my people go.” “Freedom for my people.” Is it a crime? The United Nations Charter approves agitation for freedom. African Human Rights Charter, approves agitation for freedom without violence. Did they (the Nigerian authorities) catch Nnamdi Kanu carrying arms, gun or even wooden clubs? They are holding him because he is Igbo.
The so-called ‘unknown gunmen’ have continued to plague the South East. What’s your reaction to this intractable scourge?
In November last year when I visited my in-laws, unknown gunmen accosted us. They were masked. They took my vehicle which they eventually returned. They did not identify themselves as to know who they were and their mission. So, it remains unknown to me till date. I didn’t see their faces and didn’t know whether they were Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani, Efik or Ibibio. So, it is difficult for anybody to say that unknown gunmen are necessarily Igbo because when I encountered them, they covered their faces with only their eyes which I saw. This happened in Ihiala area of Anambra State. Nobody can say truthfully who they are. We are only shocked that the issue of unknown gunmen and their problem cannot be checked by the Nigeria Police and Armed Forces. Who do they want to solve it for them, you or me?
The administration of Governor Alex Otti came into being in Abia State about five months ago. Would you say that Abians are seeing positive change in governance?
Governance starts slowly. New administrations start slowly and gather momentum and speed eventually, as they go on. Gov Otti has been there for less than a year, so one should not expect any miracle to take place. It’s too short a period for a miracle to happen. Let’s give him a year for a start and see how he gets on with governance. He is eminently qualified and has the right background to improve on what his predecessors in office did. Let’s give him that chance.
What advice do you have for the people of the South-East who are passing through the present economic downturn ravaging the country?
The truth is that our people in leadership positions have no selfless approach in governance. Leadership, for them, gives an opportunity to amass personal wealth, engage in self-aggrandisement and accumulation of stupendous wealth. A leader uses the opportunity he has got to enrich himself, family members and close friends without thinking about those he has accepted to lead. They love to become trillionaires, no longer billionaires, while being happy that those they govern continue to wallow in abject poverty. This doesn’t give me joy. I see a bleak future for our land, if things continue to be the way they are at present. I am yet to see anything anybody can do about it. If we go into election to select people we think can do well, those in power will manipulate and hijack the ballots to favour them. Ours is a rotten society and there’s nothing we can do. The situation is, in fact, hopeless. Only God will see us through.