Constitutional Lawyer and chieftain of APC, Dr. Tunji Abayomi, speaks with Special Correspondent, JULIUS ALABI on the recommendation by the House of Representatives, of the removal of immunity clause from the constitution, and politics of SAN title, among other issues.
Recommendation by the House of Representatives on removal of immunity clause from the constitution
This is part of the problem of this country. When you look at the people discussing the constitution, amendment or emergence, I always ask: “how many times have they invited constitutional experts and interacted with them?” When America celebrated its 200 years of constitution, it invited Prof. Ben Nwabueze as one of the special guests and he delivered a lecture. Now, has Nigeria invited Nwabueze not to talk of Tunji Abayomi or other constitutional experts in terms of new constitution for Nigeria? They went from zone to zone and brought together market women and gave them meat pie.
The constitution itself is not amendable; it is illegitimate, and illegitimate constitution cannot be amended. You must first of all legitimise the constitution by the proper approbation of the people and, as I always say, the constitution is not law. A law, by its definition, is passed by a legislative house and assented to by the president. But a constitution is an agreement among the people on how they want to be governed. It is not the content of the constitution that validates it; it is the procedure of making the constitution. The people in the National Assembly refuse to learn because they spend billions of naira on wasteful constitutional amendment. If the constitution is legitimate, you don’t need to waste money on the amendment. Any legitimate constitution has internal prescription on the process of amendment. You begin by raising a bill, send it to the Houses of Assembly, they pass it usually by two-thirds and it becomes an amendment.
They (lawmakers) don’t understand the law; of course the president, vice president, governors and deputies must enjoy immunity. You cannot have a president or governor that would be subjected to a legal process anyhow. Let us understand that, in a sense, they don’t enjoy immunity forever, but their enjoyment of immunity is only limited to the term they are in office. They have spent billions wastefully on a venture they don’t care to understand. In our nation, anything goes and so we are where we are.
Going to court to stop the constitution amendment
No, it has nothing to do with being a chieftain of APC. It is because I don’t want the country to enter into another voyage of desolation and confusion. They have gone to the National Conference without any law; they have come out with resolutions from the conference. Where do they go? They are talking of a referendum. How do you get referendum? Do you go on the street and say I want a referendum? How do you turn it into a constitution? If you send it to National Assembly, part of the recommendations is that we should have unicameral legislature. Can the National Assembly vote out its existence? What the president is supposed to do is to act according to law. In my case before the court, the president has no job constitutionally except a few; he can be a chief executive, appoint ambassadors, command the armed forces and grant prerogative of mercy. If you take those four jobs, he has only one job and that is to execute the law and the constitution. The question is, where is the law he is executing? If he wants to amend the constitution, that is not his job. Worldwide, constitution is amended by the legislature. If he says he wants to give us new constitution, he has already started on a wrong footing because he appointed invalidly about 140 people into the conference, whereas under the law, he has just one voting right like any other Nigerian. He has no power to give us a new constitution.
Involvement in politics
I asked former President Olusegun Obasanjo the same question and he then said to me that regardless of how important you are, when the condition of your people in your nation is pitiful, it affects your image. He then said if you have all the money, how many hospitals can you build? If you have the desire to improve the condition of the people and you have personal wealth, how much can you really give to the people?
My interest in politics is essentially how I can use the energy, might, perceptibility, my connections in the world and my compassion for the people to improve the lives of the people, to see if I can make government work for the people of the country. I told people that I grew up in an environment of high value. I lived abroad. I was in Ohio University and twice I won the President Leadership award among others. I asked myself, what really should you be judged by? If you don’t want a situation with the level of corruption, disorder, poverty, wretchedness, a country without water, a country without good hospital, not even one primary school that elite can put their children, I feel that if I can help somebody as I move on, if I can give a bit of helping hand to the people, then my life is not in vain. I think I have a better chance to use my life, now that I am in the last quarter of it, in a way to improve the lives of the people.
Any ideology while coming to politics
My ideology is dictated by humanism. When I talk of humanism, it is the same principle as human right. The human right is to be humane. If you are humane, you would not corrupt yourself because you know that every penny counts. Even if you have all the wealth, it is not sufficient to meet the needs of the people. If you are humane, you would know that education is crucial for the future of the poor and the wealthy. If you are humane, you will know that the environment should be improved, so that people can live more fulfilling life. You will be satisfied and thank God for the privilege that history has given you to serve the people.
Doing that without necessarily going into politics
The problem is the limitation. I might have been doing that; giving scholarship to the people. But it is limited. If we have collective wealth, we can solve collective problem in a larger and extensive manner.
Choosing political party
When I choose a political party, I set out for criteria that I want to achieve. First of all, the party must have historical mentors that I share their vision. The second one is that the party must have history, and the third is that the party must have relevance among my people. The last thing is that the party must be humane. When I laid down those criteria earlier in the current dispensation, Alliance for Democracy (AD) met those criteria because you must appreciate that I was not going into politics as a politician; I was going into politics as a professional and my interest was not to win at all costs. I looked at somebody like Obafemi Awolowo and I said he was committed to the people and was humane. He was my mentor. I looked at the history of the struggle of Action Group (AG) to AD, I looked at their ideals; education, development of the society, environment and commerce. Those were the bases that I chose to go into politics.
Intention at governing Ondo
If I am the governor of Ondo State, first and foremost, I would not spend N1 billion to celebrate my first anniversary. I will not establish wasteful ventures like Kaadi Igbe Ayo, and Dome which are totally irrelevant to the poverty of the people. Take for example, Oba Adesida Road in Akure. To my mind, what was necessary was to have modern car parks which would also generate commerce. It would have freed that road and saved billions of naira that would have been pumped into wealth generating project. I am aspiring to be the governor of Ondo, to develop the state where the people of the state will enjoy the dividends of democracy.
Chances of APC winning 2015 general elections
Our chance is bright, if we work hard and are determined. But if we take things for granted, we would fail. However, if we work hard and are serious about our own affairs, allow due process to take its course and have good candidates, we have a good chance to do well in this state. But we must work hard. There is simply no compromise about that.
APC taking advantage of the defection of Mimiko to PDP
We are taking advantage. About 3,000 people just defected in Ondo South senatorial district. People are coming in because a lot of people are traumatised about Governor Olusegun Mimiko’s movement in and out of political parties. The governor was of Labour Party (LP). What was surprising was that he turned the whole state to orange. It was as if LP would live in Ondo in perpetuity, only for you to turn around and abandon the same LP and turn to PDP. Honestly, I don’t understand Governor Mimiko.
Not being made a SAN
I am not worried at all; I never get worried over any issue because I am not convinced about it. On the issue of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), I always ask the question, what really is in it? Is it an award or a promotion? If it is an award, my understanding of award is that it is independent of the awardees. Eminent people, who deserve to sit and judge over others, will meet and decide that for the distinction or the achievement of this person, let us confer on him with this honour. It is totally independent of the honouree. I always give an example of a friend of mine who we were handling a major case together in Abuja and every evening, he was going to the Supreme Court. One day I asked him: why are you going to the Supreme Court after 4pm? He said this SAN; you cannot get it without lobbying for it. Eventually, he got the SAN. We have occasion where people go to birthdays, burial ceremonies and all kinds of ceremonies because they are looking for SAN.
In my view, if it is honour, it should be totally independent of the honouree. In other hand, if it is a promotion, we should sit for the same exam and be judged impartially. I do not see that at all in reference to SAN. If all you achieve is to increase your fees in service to the people, that is of no interest to me. I am not interested in wealth without character. If on the other hand, it is simply to ask your colleague to move from the front seat and move back, to me that violates the cardinal principle of equal protection under the law and I cannot surrender myself to that. The whole thing that surrounds it, to my mind, does not connote eminent value that should inspire anyone. In our nation, people enjoy titles; they want to be Chief, Dr., SAN and all have you. In most cases, these titles become oppressive.
Choosing Law as a profession
The choice of law was actually a suggestion based on the understanding of my personality by my uncle who was then a Professor of Anthropology. He was of the view that I would function best and highest as a lawyer fighting for the right of the people. From childhood, the fibre of struggle for the rights of the people has been in me. I remember when I was barely five years old, my mother was a trader and she would buy a lot of clothes for me in her journey. She would wash all those clothes and spread them on line. When I would go out in the village to play, I always wondered why my colleagues had no clothes to wear and I would always run back to the house and would take part of the many clothes and gave it to them because I could not understand why I would have many clothes and some other people would have none. My uncle came to my mother and said this child that had no father was giving his clothes away, is this not a dangerous proposition? My mother told him to leave me, saying that might be the mission that God had given me. Maybe it is natural duty assigned to me to stand up truthfully for the oppressed.
