*Says Jonathan, Obasanjo promoted corruption
By Daniel Kanu
Nigeria may not extricate itself from the woes bedeviling it soon because those at the helm of its affairs have no capacity to govern it.
This is the submission of Nigeria’s foremost Constitutional lawyer and one of the oldest Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), Professor Ben Nwabueze in an exclusive interview with The Niche.
The erudite professor of Law said Nigeria may continue to wallow in socio-economic and political wilderness because the man they elected president last year, Muhammadu Buhari, has neither the “academic nor intellectual credentials” to govern the country.
He said the election of Buhari was a big mistake, accusing Nigerians of suffering from amnesia and refusing to learn from the mistake of electing ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo 16 years ago.
In his words: “I said it at the beginning that Buhari does not have what it takes, he does not have the academic and intellectual credentials to rule Nigeria. He just went from School Certificate to the army. Does training in a military academy adequately equip anybody to govern this country, knowing what it takes, what it means to govern Nigeria? Can what you are taught in a military academy without a university background prepare you?”
Nwabueze said while many of the contemporary Nigerian soldiers go to the university before joining the army, many in the Buhari generation joined the military immediately after their School Certificate examination. He sees that as a huge problem and situates President Buhari’s seeming inability to grapple with the numerous challenges facing the country in his lack of capacity.
“Do you know what it means to govern this country? The complexity of the Nigerian society, the sheer intellectual complexity of the Nigerian Constitution. How many Nigerians understand it? How many have read it? We don’t have a reading culture. Have you asked yourself that question? How many Nigerians, even among the politicians read the Nigerian Constitution and how many of those who read understand,” he asked rhetorically.
Grouping the President among those who may not have read the Nigerian Constitution, he asked: “Does Buhari read the Constitution? Does he understand it? Is he prepared if he understands at all to abide by its commands and directives? That is part of the problem.”
Nwabueze said no one who does not understand the basic instrument, the basic charter of governance in a country (constitution) can govern that country.
“The shout of a change mantra does not bring about change when those who govern do not understand the basic instrument, the basic charter of governance in our country.
“We all made a very big mistake electing Buhari president knowing that he doesn’t have the credentials. Should we have done that knowing our experience under Obasanjo? They lack the experience to govern and if we were not suffering from amnesia, we should not have elected another former head of the federal military government. We shouldn’t have repeated the same mistake.
“We have ourselves to blame for expecting the man to do what he is not equipped to do. He is not equipped to do this neither by his intellectual nor academic qualifications nor by his antecedents as former head of the federal military government. He was trained and there was a certain mentality implanted in him, mentality of giving orders and expecting the orders to be obeyed.
“Today, they call him the Sheriff. That is a fitting title. He is ruling as a Sheriff, giving orders. Saying one thing today and another tomorrow. The ministers are there waiting for him. Have you heard any of them make any intelligent statement? They are all scared waiting for the Sheriff to give orders which they will carry out. If you go against his orders, you are in trouble. After all, he said ministers are only there to make noise.”
But Nwabueze, one of the two surviving Senior Advocates of Nigeria from the first set in 1978 that included Obafemi Awolowo and Richard Akinjide, says Buhari, unlike his predecessors, Goodluck Jonathan and Olusegun Obasanjo, has shown more sincerity and seriousness in waging the war against corruption.
“I think Buhari is more focused in the war against corruption, at least he is doing more than his predecessors. I will put it in comparative terms. Compared with the war against corruption under presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Olusegun Obasanjo, he is way ahead.
“I think Buhari is more sincere, more serious about the war than these other people. Under the other presidents, the war was a façade, a make-belief. They were not fighting corruption and that was why corruption instead of going down blossomed. Under Jonathan and Obasanjo, the corruption graph was going up, not down. But I think Buhari is more sincere and more determined.”
He, however, said that limiting the war to Jonathan’s administration detracts from the sincerity.
“Buhari has constraints, no doubt, because of the issues of seriousness and sincerity. The question is, is he prepared to withstand these constraints? When you talk about limiting the war to the immediate past administration of Jonathan, you are not showing sincerity. Jonathan’s is not the only corrupt administration. How can you justifiably say that you are fighting corruption when you are limiting it to just Jonathan’s administration and closing your eyes to the corruption under other administrations? But he is clearly doing more than the others before.
“Whether the war will succeed in eradicating corruption is the ultimate question. We must understand that corruption has become a way of life in Nigeria. It has eaten into the blood of every Nigerian, into the fabric of the Nigerian society. How can you eradicate it? You cannot eradicate it by sending one or two people to prison or by confiscating the assets of one or two people.
“How do you deal with the ordinary man who on a daily basis is committing corruption? Ninety percent of people in this country perpetrate corruption. You can’t get anything done in this country unless you are prepared to grease the palms of either public or private officials. And it has become, like I said, a way of life. You have to do this to get on. And that is where my call for social and ethical revolution comes in. How do you get this out of the mentality of the ordinary man and woman? You cannot except by social and ethical revolution.”
