By Sunday Ani
In this interview, , Deputy Chairman, Joint Action Front (JAF), speaks on various issues including why the citizens should ensure that politicians are held to account.
Socio-economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) is asking the state governors and the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to account for the money that they have collected, either as loans or as allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), what it did with the money whether in terms of projects or other infrastructure, it has also asked them to call ICPC and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to come and audit state accounts and SERAP has been given them one week ultimatum; do you think that is realistic?
I think your question really about how realistic it is, I think it is fundamental. Obviously, there are certain things that SERAP knows that some of us Nigerians also know and it appears our democracy continues to whittle down every single day. We are talking about realities and ideals, the difference between ideals and practicability of what SERAP is saying. I feel sorry for SERAP and for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the country about the almost impotent situation that they find themselves in the country, about how to get the politicians to do what they are supposed to do under our constitution because there are enough laws in this country that should compel politicians to work in tandem with the ideals of democracy. The issue that SERAP raised is not science, it is something that is enshrined in various laws that have to do with accountability of government expenditure and revenues. Of course, you are talking about not just constitutional provisions like SERAP referenced, it also talks about fiscal responsibility act, you also talk about bureau for public procurement act and other such laws that under normal circumstances should ensure that government officials whenever they are acting on behalf of the people using government resources to fulfill certain ends must be accountable and must do it in a transparent manner. The laws are there, but unfortunately, they are not being obeyed. What should organisations like SERAP do, but to continue to push the frontiers of our laws in this country? It issued this statement which if you look at it in terms of the political trajectory of this country from 1999 till now, you will say that the politicians will look at the threat of SERAP and will laugh in derision. Obviously, what will SERAP do, what will Nigerians do if the politicians don’t respond to SERAP threat, of course it is like the statement by Joseph Sterlin with regards to the Pope? How many divisions have the Pope? What can he do? He only has the force of the moral friction but beyond that, there is nothing he can do about that. Unfortunately, we find ourselves in that situation, but we have to continue to agitate, we have to continue to advocate. That is the only thing we can do now. The politicians are not going to respond to anything and that gives you an idea of the state of our polity. 36 states Governors and the minister of Federal Capital Territory, where you have to tell them, you have to threaten them, using legal instrument to try to get them do what under normal circumstances credible, responsible, committed politicians should be doing. It is a good thing that SERAP has done. It is more of idealism. It is expected that the political class will respond to this. Going to court is one area. They will tell you that the court is under them. They control the courts, and they control what happens in court. Anyway, I don’t see anything coming out of it unless the people themselves would have to decide. It is Nigerians that will suffer. Ultimately, we are told that the price that we have to pay for our democracy is vigilance, and vigilance means constructive engagement by the people generally with their political leaders. We have not gotten to that level where we engage constructively and that is why this thing has continued to go this way.
You painted such a dire picture of almost hopeless situation in terms of the outcome of this pursuit by SERAP; where do we go from here?
One word that has been prevalent in this country since 1999 has been impunity. All of the things that you have said revolved around the word impunity. Everybody knows; even the media is aware, which is why you talk about the culture of impunity. It is impunity that has brought about the sorry situation. The statements are routed in facts and reality. It is not about wanting to make a dire prediction about the helplessness of Nigerians in the presence of their political leadership that has not shown any seriousness of responsibility and commitment to the nation state. So, these are just the issues. What do we do? I agree that what SERAP is doing is the right thing and of course we are looking at the reality of the situation on ground. We fail to realise the fact that we are talking of power, we are talking of balance of power. The balance of power is essentially in the hands of politicians and the political class. They represent the force, they represent the force right now and a moveable force, but it has to be moved, and the only way you can move the political class is through another force. I am not talking about forces that are illegal or beyond constitutional provisions, and beyond the rule of law. I am talking about the Nigerian people. The Nigerian people themselves constitute a major force that is able to move the politicians. The politicians during elections they go to the people. We need to be able to mobilize, and if we are not able to mobilize the right kind of resources especially the human resources with regard to mobilizing Nigerians for political action. It is going to be very difficult, practically impossible to move politicians, to put sufficient level of pressure on the politicians to begin to move them in the right direction. It is not as if they are not aware that what they are doing is wrong. It is not as if they are not aware that they have been getting away in terms of what they have done within the system, but the ability to get away with this has been dependent on the fact that they constitute a force that is not beneficial to the Nigerian people because the Nigerian people have not been able to muster that force that is needed politically to be able to move them or to get them to move in the proper direction. Ultimately, it is back to the people, organisations like SERAP are just doing what they can do, within the ambits of the laws that set them up. They cannot go beyond that but whatever they do, whatever SERAP does, it’s making a statement for the Nigerian people. So, Nigerians should take note and in the fullness of time, they should be able to do something about the information that they have. So SERAP is giving information to the Nigerian people just like the media has been doing all this while. There is a struggle to be fought in this country and if we don’t do that, we will be held down. It is not too far to look at what happened with countries like Somalia and Egypt. They were there as long as the people were docile but when the people were able to mobilise themselves, they saw the force that was greater than the force that were on display in those countries, and they were able to move them out. Unfortunately, we have seen the fall out in these places and how those countries degenerated to a level, especially in a place like Somalia. We must not allow it to get to that level. It is unfortunate but that is where we are. I have always maintained that our political leaders are not patriotic, not nationalistic, and they are not committed to the Nigerian state. All the shenanigans that we have seen in the past years, not just this administration, the previous administration and other administrations, though it has got worse with each succeeding administration in the country. All of these are as a result of the primary disposition of the political elite towards the country.
A senator was asked question about the budget padding, and he said he didn’t want to enter ‘wahala’ as regards a budget that a lot of people have argued was really padded. A lot of projects have no locations, how can you have a project with no location? Can there be a true peoples’ parliament?
You are not the only one looking at the situation helplessly and with despair; a lot of Nigerians are. If the former President under whose administration a lot of atrocities were also committed, if he could say in 2021 as the executive president of this country with enormous power, that what Federal Government releases, N100 million goes to the state and the state governor takes N50million, sends N50 million to the chairman of the local Government, he decides what to do with it, gives a few people and then pockets the rest. If he could say so with so much helplessness and anger, what are we supposed to say? That was an executive president of the country that had enormous power, and had information at his disposal that these things are happening, yet he was helpless. We are in a helpless situation but I don’t think that we should just fold our hands and wait for salvation. That salvation has to come from the people because ultimately government is about the people and that was why I made reference to the fact that when it comes to election, they have to go and give their report cards to the people, even though we also know that they have to go and try to manipulate that process so that the voices of the people are not heard. They go to the court and the same manipulation continues and we are back to square one. They are not looking at the future because they are so myopic and shortsighted. The question that should be asked, is, for how long will this continue? This thing started a long time ago until it led to insurgency in the North, the Boko Haram and it continues, the bandits joined and others, like insurgency in the South East and other parts of the country. Everything that is happening is as a result of bad governance. Everything we see about bad governance is traceable to the political elite; everything we see about the misbehavior of the political elites is as a result of the docility of the Nigerian people. Ultimately, the Nigerian people are the greatest beneficiaries of good governance and they are the greatest losers as a result of bad governance. What SERAP is doing is good and other CSOs. We need more education. We need to sensitize the people much more than they are doing in a scale that we have never done before. We need to open their eyes so that they can see where the problem is. The reality is that if we are not able to do these things to sensitize the people sufficiently to begin to politically engage with politicians, the danger is that we are going to allow hunger to determine the direction that people are going to go. I have always maintained that the day it gets to a level where being alive and being dead, people can no longer see the difference, it is at that moment that they will realize that we just have to do something. They will just have to seek change, since if they do nothing, they will surely die. The certainty becomes more dangerous than the uncertainty of not doing anything, and that will propel them. I think that we are getting to that level. The hunger is not yet deep. Yes, there is hunger and suffering everywhere but I think that will push people. For us at the Civil Society we need to continue to galvanize our people as much as we can. The politician is like the driver who is driving a car that is heading fast towards a cliff, and he knows that will cause problem for him that he could die in the process, but he is so used to what he is doing that he cannot even afford to match that break. Then he gets to the cliff and falls over. That is what the politicians are doing because there should be an elitist consensus, that what they have done looking at the way the country has worked over the years and where the country is, they must be able to sit down and say, look, these things that we have done to this country, we have done it far too long and this country can no longer afford to sustain it, and all of us are in danger. The level of irresponsibility and the I-don’t-care attitude is such that even though they see destruction approaching, they will do nothing about it and that is the sad reality about the Nigerian state but we the people should not allow that to happen.