12/COVER
02.01.2018
‘NIGERIA OPERATES A FAKE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION’ do not want to do any research or background checks about any policy or idea to be adopted, but only join the band wagon of chorus boys whenever the government sounds the trumpet of corruption allegations. What do I mean? An ideal Whistle Blowing Policy, should not be tied around the narrow and weather-beaten issue of corruption, but is all- embracing and inclusive of the need to inculcate good governance in the country’s ethos. For example, Benjamin Franklin, former President of the United States, was one of the first whistleblowers in America, when, as far back as 1773, he exposed some confidential letters, alleging that the Governor of Massachusetts misled Parliament to promote a military build-up. In other countries as well, much emphasis is not placed on a reward system as we are presently doing. Whistleblowing should permeate all aspects of governance, including nepotism, avarice, incompetence, mis-governance, maltreatment, discrimination, etc. In cases where whistleblowing should attract monetary compensation, we must not do so at the expense of hard work, so that every Nigerian does not translate himself/herself to a whistleblower and in the process, jettisoning the dignity of labour and hard work. Such cases should also be related to issues of national security, like when the late Colonel Dimka assassinated the much-loved General Murtala Ramat Mohammed, and the government placed a reward for any whistleblower who could provide any information leading to Dimka’s apprehension. That was what the American government recently did in the case of Osama Bin Laden. I will advice the National Assembly to do a soul-searching exercise on this subject, and come up with a Bill that will capture and address the whistleblowing policy in all its ramifications. In fact, whistleblowing should be induced by the civic duties of the citizens to expose crime, and not accentuated by a reward system where people, for instance, want a share of alleged looted funds. It should also not be a substitute for, or discourage the statutory responsibility of the police to detect crime. Rather than making cash payments to whistle blowers, the money should be substantially channeled to improving the investigative powers of the police, whilst whistle blowers are compensated in other ways, e.g education, support, scholarships, etc. What do you then say about the plan to create special courts for corruption cases? Do you support it? Without much ado, I reiterate my position that we do not need special courts for corruption cases. For now, our judicial landscape is over-saturated by federal courts, and they include the Supreme Court itself, the Court of Appeal, the Federal High Court, the National Industrial Court, the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, as well as some tribunals, amongst which are the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Investments and Securities Tribunal, etc. The judiciary, just like the Nigerian system itself, has now been unitarised. The State High Courts have been totally sidelined and emasculated. It is a dangerous signal to the administration of justice in Nigeria, whether criminal or civil. We are fast forgetting that every State in Nigeria has an Attorney-General, who is the Chief Law Officer of the State, and by and large, the constitutionally defined roles of a State’s Attorney-General are being wiped off. I was once a State Attorney-General, and I still remember the powers I wielded and exercised, viz a viz the Federal Attorney -General then. Apart from this, if we have special courts for corruption cases, are we saying, in all sincerity, that the said corruption cases are more important than cases of rape, arson, murder, manslaughter and other matters relating to wanton destruction of lives and properties by either herdsmen, militants, terrorists, etc? Hence, once we have corruption courts, we must also have special courts for these other crimes. Maybe we will also have special appeal courts for corruption related cases, independent of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. What we should do is to rehabilitate the State High Courts that are dying and being extinguished, and restore and revive their old jurisdiction, so that both the Federal and State Courts can fairly cope with the myriad of challenges facing the nation, both in the civil and criminal areas of adjudication. It is uninteresting that rather than asking for the creation of a constitutional court that will take care of constitutional and electoral cases which litter our judicial landscape, and relieve the Court of Appeal, as well as the Supreme Court, from the unnecessary burden of dissipating time and energy on these cases, which are escalating geometrically in number, pundits are urging for the creation of special courts for anti-corruption
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cases. Your tenure as President saw the creation of sections in the NBA which was welcome with much enthusiasm and excitement. What is your assessment of those sections now against the backdrop of the vision you had way back in 2003? SPIDEL for instance seems to be in comatose. While campaigning for the Presidency of the NBA, it was one of my major campaign promises that if elected as President, I would initiate the creation of special sections within the NBA, as it is done in the International Bar Association, in order to take care of the yearnings and aspirations of a good number of our colleagues who had developed and acquired expertise in several areas of law, whether commerce, taxation, maritime, franchise, cabotage, transport, communications, oil and gas, aviation, environmental, criminal, civil, etc. Immediately upon my assumption of office, our Executive set up the modalities for putting in place the Sections on Business Law and Legal Practice. At our Annual General Conference in Enugu in 2003, we first experimented with the idea of having the conference on the Business Law Section and Legal Practice Section. The late leader of the Bar, Chief Debo Akande, SAN, was made the overseer of the different forums where the conference was held. Thereafter, the pioneer officers of the two Sections were appointed with George Etomi and Adegbola Adeniyi (now Justice Adeniyi) as Chairman and Secretary respectively, of the Business Law Section, while Messrs. Yusuf Ali and Richard Ahonaruogho were made Chairman and Secretary respectively of the Legal Practice Section. Bye-laws for the two sections were submitted to NEC and approved, while the two Sections were inaugurated in Ilorin on 8th July, 2004, and a copy of the Bye-Laws was given to each of the members. Our 2004 Annual General Conference, held in Abuja between 22nd – 27th August, was purely organised on the platform of the two Sections. Both Sections did very well in the beginning, but along the line, for reasons which I cannot appreciate, everybody now wants to be a member of the Business Law Section at the expense of the Section of Legal Practice. Not much is being heard about the Section of Legal Practice today. My executive did not create SPIDEL, it was an initiative of a successive Executive. I also agree that SPIDEL, like SLP, is comatose. The ‘in thing’ in the NBA today is the Section on Business Law, it is amazing. The Stamp and Seal initiative of the immediate past administration is also an area where Lawyers have expressed discontent and dissatisfaction. Some have complained the stamps take such a long time to get and their lifespan is very short. What would be your advice on resolving this problem? Permit me to also correct the wrong impression being bandied about within the rank and file of NBA members, that the stamp and seal was the initiative of the immediate past administra-
tion of the NBA. It was not. It was an idea brought about, nurtured and executed by my Executive. Mrs Funke Adekoya, SAN, the first Vice-President, was so passionate about it, as she headed the Committee on the Stamp and Seal. The stamp and seal project of my Executive was commissioned at the NEC meeting held at Ilorin on 8th July, 2004 by the then Chief Justice of Nigeria, Honourable Justice M.L Uwais. It was a very elaborate and successful affair. Immediately before, during and after the event, the composite stamp and seal instrument was given to members who duly paid . I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, condemning the revised edition of the initiative, as initiated by the Okey Wali-led Executive and completed by the Austin Alegeh Executive. All I am saying is that we, as Lawyers, must not readily forget our history, particularly the history of an initiative that took place in 2004. Regarding the complaints that the stamps take such a long time to obtain, while their lifespan is short, I will also advise that the present Executive should be retrospective, go into the archives, and study the presentations relied on by my Executive before we executed the project. I still have my composite device, embracing the stamp and seal, and I believe that many Lawyers in the country still have theirs as well. They should borrow a leaf from those presentations, as well as the devices distributed by us, in order to make a lasting improvement on the stamp and seal project. Does the Senate have the power and moral rectitude to summon every citizen before it? Impression is now being given that it has constituted itself into a judicial or quasi-judicial body. Both the Senate and House of Representatives constitute the Legislature at the Federal level, which is an important arm of government, amongst the tripod – Executive, Legislature and Judiciary. To demonstrate its importance, the Constitution treats it first in Chapter V. Section 88 of the Constitution, ties the investigatory powers of the National Assembly substantially to any matter or thing with respect to which it has powers to makes laws, as well as the conduct of affairs of any person or authority of Ministry or government department charged with the responsibility of executing laws enacted by the National Assembly or disbursing monies appropriated by it. In my view, the National Assembly has the power to investigate the affairs of the people in government, who have the responsibility of carrying out or discharging the obligations the laws made by the National Assembly or administer monies appropriated by it. In effect, the investigative powers are not at large, and I hasten to advice the National Assembly to restrict itself to the provisions of the Constitution, rather than acting as an ombudsman relating to the affairs of private individuals and companies. I have my very serious doubts if
"I WANT TO REPEAT MY ADMONITION TO THE EFCC IN ONE OF MY PRESENTATIONS TO THEM AS A DEFENCE COUNSEL, WHEN I WAS INVITED TO PRESENT A PAPER AT A RETREAT ORGANISED BY THE AGENCY, TO THE EFFECT THAT IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE FOR ANY PROSECUTOR TO ARRAIGN AN ACCUSED PERSON ON A 30-100 COUNT CHARGE. IN THAT TYPE OF CONUNDRUM, THE COUNTS BECOME DUPLICITOUS, REPETITIVE, UNWIELDY, BORING, NAUSEATING, VAGUE, AMBIGUOUS AND MEANINGLESS" the National Assembly has the vires to do this, and some decided authorities, starting from the celebrated case of MOMOH v SENATE, EL RUFAI v HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES and GUARDIAN NEWSPAPERS v AGF, corroborate this submission. However, in respect of those who come within the specific purview of section 88 of the Constitution, they might have no reason for not submitting to the investigative proceedings of the National Assembly. I have said earlier in this interview, that for our democracy to flourish, we must build strong institutions, and each of the houses of the National Assembly are part and parcel of the expected institutions. While judgements and orders of our courts must be obeyed and respected, investigative invitations extended by the National Assembly to government functionaries who come within the purview of its investigative activities ought to be respected. I commend the Attorney -General of the Federation for answering and submitting himself to the investigative query of the National Assembly on the Maina saga That is how it should be. Let us quickly remind ourselves that, but for the outcome of the investigation carried out by the National Assembly, Nigerians would not have known what happened to the disbursement and administration of the funds earmarked for the internally displaced people by the erstwhile Secretary to the Government of the Federation. While I quickly advice that there is a world of difference between investigation and witch-hunting, and that the National Assembly should not turn itself into a Knight-errant, we must take a cue from what the United States Congress does with its investigative powers, to sustain good governance and probity, and curb impunity on the part of those who hold public offices, including members of the Congress themselves.