Obono-Obla

The law is a fantastic document. But Nigeria doesn’t have the capacity to check the abuse of the internet?

There is capacity but Nigerians don’t know. That is why we have lawyers. If somebody defames you on Facebook for example, you just talk to your lawyer. The lawyer will conduct some investigation and advice you properly. You don’t need to have 50 million lawyers in Nigeria. The lawyers are there, if you feel something that is not right, then you talk to a lawyer. The lawyer will do some research and then advice you.

When some people are asked to answer questions by the anti-graft agencies, they question say Nigeria is sliding into dictatorship. There appears to be a kind of effort to blackmail President Buhari because of his activities against graft in his first coming. Such people say Buhari will never change, that he is a dictator. What’s your observation?

That is rubbish. The President Buhari I know is very democratic even when he was a military Head of States. I have a senior friend who was a Minister in Buhari’s cabinet, Professor David Tam-West. He told me that Buhari is very democratic. He said during the Supreme Military Council meetings, all the Ministers made contributions and debated. And the Head of State always ruled in favour of the majority. So, all those who are saying Buhari is not democratic are political detractors. He has always been democratic in his dealings. He is a very procedural man, somebody who doesn’t believe in cutting corners. He doesn’t believe in going out of his way to bend the law to create favours for his friends.
Do you have any evidence that the President has acted undemocratically?

Well, there are accusations…

Look at the National Assembly, if he were undemocratic, we would not have had the leadership of the National Assembly we are having now. When there was a problem in the selection of the leadership of the National Assembly, he refused to interfere. Even in the party, he has refused to interfere in the day to day running of the party. Some people are now looking at this as a form of weakness. But it shows that he respects the constitution, he respects the principle of separation of powers. He has never interfered in the affairs of the judiciary. You know that the All Progressives Congress lost the governorship of AkwaIbom and Rivers State and you remember how that happened. If the President was what these people are accusing him of, don’t you think he would have used his power to interfere? He never did.

Obono-Obla

But such people point to the continuous detention of NnamdiKanu of the Indigenous People of Biafra. A section of Nigerians believed that he was held despite being granted bail by a court of justice?
Did he fulfil the bail conditions? You know, when it comes to some of these things, some Nigerians are very ignorant. Sometimes they depend on half-truths or sometimes they rely on manipulated press reports by those who want to blackmail the government. If he was granted bail by the magistrate court, did he meet the bail conditions? If he was taken to the High Court, how would the order of the magistrate court stand against that? That is the same thing in the Dasuki case where people say the President is disobeying a court order. There is nothing like that. I am saying this because I am involved in the matter. Dasuki was first arrested and charged for unlawful possession of firearms. He was granted bail, he met the conditions. But before he was released from prison, the SSS arrested him for another offence that is unrelated to the one he was granted bail.

That fresh arrest cancelled the bail because you cannot say bail granted in respect of murder should supplant the breach of terrorism laws. But some people don’t know. The press is manipulated, the press is influenced. You know corruption fights back, a lot of things go on to influence public opinion to give the impression that the Federal Government has disobeyed the court order. Dasuki went to court, his lawyers filed a motion alleging that the government disobeyed an order of court. But Justice Ademola of the Federal High Court, Maitama said no, that the Federal government did not disobey any court order.

There are also allegations that members of the APC are not being fired or pursued as the fight against corruption intensifies against member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP?
Who was in government? PDP was in government for sixteen years. They were in absolute control of the country. There was a time they had 27 out of the 36 state governors. PDP was in total control of the National Assembly for 16 years. During that period, this country realised more than 50 trillion from the sale of crude oil. So, it is natural that people who were in control of a government that was corrupt should be those to be asked to render account. The APC was not in government. The APC was founded o the 31st of July, 2014.

How about those who defected from other parties to the APC?

Who are they? I have seen APC members who are facing court trials. The former governor of Zamfara State, SanniYerima is facing trial. I have seen someone who was close to the President, a former governor, he was arrested. So, all these noise they are making that the anti-corruption war is selective is balderdash, it is hogwash. It is a red-herring to distract the Federal government. Anytime a big man who steals money is asked to render account, he begins to whip up sentiment ‘I’m Yoruba, I’m Igbo, I’m pagan, I’m Christian, the President just doesn’t like my face, I belong to PDP, that is why he wants to punish me.’ Every day, poor people go to prison and nobody hears about selective justice. So, it is just hogwash. I can assure you that in this government, everybody is equal before the law. The era where some people who were rich or influential were behaving anyhow, is gone for good.