Federal Government should fix Abia Roads – Ubani

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Monday Onyekachi Ubani, former chairman of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja Branch, Lagos State, is not happy with the death sentence passed on some Nigerian soldiers lately. In this interview with Eberechi Obinagwam, he believes the soldiers acted somewhat as catalysts that turned the military around, and should be granted pardon by the President.

 

Let’s start on this high note: what is your reaction to the death sentence passed on some soldiers recently?

My reaction is that if they are truly sure, and have succeeded in proving the ingredients of the offence that the men were alleged to have committed, because I am not too sure of what they were really charged for – whether it was for mutiny or for attempted murder – the President should grant them amnesty.

 It is very important, if they have succeeded in proving that the men were guilty, and then the approving authority have confirmed the death sentence and other sentences on the defendants, I think the soldiers have a right of appeal, and they should appeal the judgment.

If eventually the appeal court succeeds also in confirming the conviction of the lower tribunal, the final approving of authority, which is the President, who should sign for the execution should exercise some prerogative of mercy and temper justice with mercy. Why am I asking for this? It is because the circumstance under which the offense was committed is a very unique one.

These are people who have been complaining that they were not properly equipped, and that insurgents were more equipped than they were – with more and better military hardware.

Apart from their complaints about the equipment, they also complained about the issue of welfare. They had been complaining, about information they were getting, which is that some military top brass were compromising their security and giving out information to Boko Haram, which has led to the massacre of their colleagues. We were made to understand that that these soldiers have seen the lifeless bodies of their colleagues in the pool of their own blood, which was as a result of compromises by their leaders.

So in the light of all these, one would expect the government to temper justice with mercy, because those generals were not punished. These were people who have been compromising our security, but have not been punished. It is only each time we get allegation of disobedience of little fries in the military that they choose to act, and swoop on them.

Why has nobody tried the generals? Why have we not heard about the conviction of generals? I think this is why mercy should come in so that we do not demoralise those who are currently in the war front fighting for us; because they also know the fact of the situation that whatever those guys were alleging was actually the true position.

Remember that the President is asking for one million dollars now in order to equip the military with more modern equipment and then to retrain them. Then if the President is now saying that he needs more money because there is no equipment; that the military needs more hardware, then that justifies the allegation by the soldiers that they were not properly equipped. I believe that all these must work on the mind of the President in exercising his prerogative of mercy to grant them clemency.

 

Will that not go against discipline which is the backbone of the military?

I also belief that discipline should be maintained in the military because if any man is not punished for shouting at his superior for instance, that means there will be lawlessness in maintaining military discipline in the hierarchy. So, I think the President must emphasis the condition upon which he is granting mercy in this particular offence.

 

There have been campaigns for Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) in support of President Jonathan, what is your position? Why has it been difficult for Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to sanction them?

INEC should clamp down on any offending political party or political group. INEC should also do that because law empowers them to do so. Election campaign has not been lifted, the law says it should be ninety days before campaigns for the election proper, but they have already started saying vote for me; do this and do that; and all manner of campaigning is taken place across the federation by almost all the political parties.

It is not only Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that is doing it; even though PDP’s constant breach is more pronounced. They have been doing their own with impunity all over the place but all of them are guilty. I think if INEC says that it is independent, then, it must rise to its responsibility as an independent body that has been given the powers to make pronouncement and at same time punish offenders.

INEC must rise up to stop the issue of campaigning before elections, it is already going on and politics is now being played more than governance itself. All the governors are abandoning their states and going to Abuja almost on a daily bases campaigning and indorsing, re-indorsing and all that, forgetting why they were elected into offices in the first place. They have not yet completed their terms and people are complaining about miss-governance. So, I think something has to be done by INEC in order to save this current ugly situation that is playing out.

 

2015 election: what is your position on the chances of the opposition parties?

My problem with the opposition party is that when they came together they created a ray of hope for many Nigerians, because Nigerians were looking forward to a viable opposition in order to ensure that the ruling party is given a run for its money. They looked forward to a viable opposition that would bring out the best in governance.

The people also hoped for an opposition that would keep the ruling party on its toes, conscious of the fact that any wrong step they (the party in government) take would result in the people voting in a viable alternative, especially when the electoral system is free and fair. But the opposition failed to realise that it must not make itself guilty of whatever the ruling party is guilty of.

They must be known for internal democracy; be known for providing a viable alternative; and that viable alternatives is on the policy innovation – what will they do better than the present government in power. Now they have an issue of choosing the right candidate and any candidate that is chosen without taken into cognizance the sensitivities of Nigerians – the current issues of ethnicity and religion that plays up easily, and which is often used by the political elite, to ambush Nigerians.

But Nigerians are reaching the level where they are politically educated, so if the opposition do not care and ensure proper balancing and properly getting an acceptable candidate that can match with the party that is in power, it will turn into a problem for them.

 

Sir can you explain this more?

Who is likely to be the presidential candidate of the opposition? Is it Buhari (Muhammadu) or Atiku (Abubakar), because these are the ones that have been projected to get the ticket; or is it Okorocha? We are looking for a viable person that cuts across all the ethnic groups in this country and cuts across issues of religion. That is the problem, and so I am having an issue with that because we are still primitive with the issue of religion and ethnicity, you know, you see this being played up. Can Buhari win comfortably in the entire South, South-east and South-west?

 

Not only winning election, what about governing Nigerians well?

No! I can assure you that when it comes to governance, and if giving the opportunity, Buhari is going to do better because if there is anything we need to fight it is corruption and if there is a man that is anti-corruption personified, it is Buhari. This man, I can speak to you today, was once a minister of petroleum, but did not have any oil block, he was head of state, and once the Chairman of Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) and many other position he has held in this particular country, yet he does not have any house in Abuja, only in Daura; there is no evidence linking him to any stealing or corruption. Then in opulence as is the case with other past heads of state, who practically went to Central Bank to steal our money, there is no such link with Buhari. If there is any man that would fight corruption; that when he comes into governance in this country and corrupt people will take off and a run away or go into permanently exile, that person is Buhari.

You see how they physically took cash of 9. 3milion dollars into South Africa, that is how it has been going on in this country, it is only that this time God decided to expose them. More, bigger and larger sum of money have been taken outside this country in the past, unnoticed, but this time around God just exposed them. What I am saying is that if there is any man I can feel a bit comfortable in governance, apart from this issue of islamization of this country which people are accusing him of, that man is Buhari.

 

Don’t you think the important issue is those he is being accused of?

People are accusing him of being an extremist, I don’t know about that, I understand that his driver has been a Christian all this while, I understand that he, at a time wanted to run for Presidency and choose Tunde Bakare who happens to be a Christian religious leader as his Vice Presidential candidate. So, I think the accusation of being a religious extremist is the only issue against him, apart from that, but all that may be a case of calling a dog a bad name in order to hang it. But I tell you that in terms of fighting corruption and probably getting the right men to run this country he is better than many of them out there.

Perhaps, my only problem with him is that most times his agenda is Northern agenda; he shows so much concern about the North. if you want to be a president of Nigeria you must show concern to the entire country because when he was complaining about what happened in the North, of how many people that have been killed in the North, etc., he has not complained about what is going on in the South and how many people were being killed there. Things are also wrong in the South-east, South-south and anywhere else apart from the North.

But he is not coming to be President of the North he is coming to be the President of Nigeria so he has to be careful. I don’t know who is packaging him, but most times I see him get angry with the system only when it comes with what he calls the marginalization of the entire North and not about Nigeria.  He has also to be careful because this issue of always raising concern about Northern region and not raising concern about what is going on in the South-west, South-east and South-south, doesn’t make him a nationalist. If he is concentrating solely on the North, Northern votes alone cannot make him the president of Nigeria; he requires the votes of other regions so that is the issue with him.

 

In a couple of days now Nigeria would clock 54 years of independence, are we really on course?

Well the Confab that some of us have hoped would sort out this issue of running a proper federal system of government, I don’t where we are at the moment except that the President keeps on making promises. Since the thing (National Conference) ended, we don’t even know where the report is going – one moment he talks about National Assembly, and the next moment he talks about something else.

 If they take those decisions at the confab to the National Assembly, I don’t know the possibility of their agreeing on anything there. But if we don’t restructure Nigeria; if we don’t run a proper federal system of government Nigeria may not experience any progress in the next 100yrs. If this country is run the way it is being run today, we will remain in darkness we won’t make any progress and if governance is about how to come in and get and not what you will give per way of services you can’t make any progress. See what happened now, these guys practically go to Central Bank, pick money and then travel abroad to develop other economies instead of developing their own country. That is why no matter whatever anyone says, I will say that most of these guys are not innocent.

We must restructure Nigeria and allow the federating units to enjoy proper devolution of powers. I see no reason why government should be the one talking of ‘Trunk A Roads’ and ‘Trunk B Roads’. If there is a road in your state, develop that road, don’t be waiting for the federal government to come and develop a road in your state for you.

Go to my state in Abia, the worse, Ikot Ekpene road; Umuahia road; Port Harcourt Aba road, that leads to Umuahia is the worse; or from Enugu. In fact all federal roads coming to Abia State they are in the worst state. I am telling you if you are entering Abia state, it is as if there is no governance going on there.

But they laud him (the President) every day.

Go to the Abia and see things for yourself and come back, it is not question of what you read in papers, people tell you on television, just take a trip. I will sponsor any journalist and when you come back what you see you come and report. The one to Ikot Ekpene is my own side of the state and it is not passable. People pass through bush now as you are going now all the cars are sunk. It is not possible, I can’t even travel to my village now because there is no road and it is a federal road. there is no electricity in my village, I have three generators in the village since God said let there be heavens and earth no light, in fact the only light we have is this ones you see in the day, there is no power so what are we talking about.

What governance? There is nothing going on. What we are saying is that unless we restructure this country and run it properly, efficiently Nigeria will not make any progress.

I am thinking there must be the issue of restructuring, issue of definition of governance; that governance must be service oriented not when you get there and because the institution is so weak to checkmate you, then you begin to steal as much as possible and get away.

 

You appear to concentrate more on the Presidency?

Do you know why governors want to get to the Senate? It is because that is where they give the Presidency automatic ticket. The arrangement is always “I go into the senate, you come back as President”. They have sat dawn and shared Nigeria and decided the faith on their own and there are no input from you and me, and Nigerians are so docile and so blind that they cannot reason and think why must they should sit down and decide our fate.

How this country should be, should be decided by you and me, we are the majority but they have sat down to decide “oh  you come back as President, we go to the Senate and then you don’t prosecute us, whatever offense we have committed don’t send EFCC after us. They have shared the country and agreed. That is why they are doing all these things, all this things you see them do for their personal interest it is all watch my back, I watch your own.

 

 


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