Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Yunus Ustaz Usman, speaks with Special Correspondent, BENJAMIN JIBRIN, on some of the recommendations of the national conference and other issues of governance in the land, scoring the local government system below average.
Reactions to national conference
Yunus Ustaz UsmanThe conference was a welcome development for Nigerians to express their views on how to forge ahead. I think it was a good thing President Goodluck Jonathan did. Now that the conference leadership has taken their deliberations to the president of the country, I am sure he will send an executive bill to the National Assembly, with a view to either amending the constitution or enacting laws that will foster more unity for the country.
Subjecting confab decision to referendum or National Assembly
People who are talking of sending the recommendation to referendum don’t even know what referendum means. When you talk about referendum, you are saying that where there is absence of legal representatives of the people, when there is such a conference, you send the recommendation to the people who will vote on it. Now we have our own representatives, the National Assembly consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate. By virtue of Section 4, those are the only ones who can make use of whatever decisions the national conference might have made. You cannot subject it to referendum. Referendum in Constitutional Law simply means the absence of a legislative house representing the people. When you gather the people you like and they make an opinion, you subject that opinion to the generality of the people. By virtue of Section 4, we have legislative houses and there is no such provision in the constitution. So, anybody who says he will take it to the people through referendum, I think, has not read the constitution at all.
Disagreement over derivation principle
When you are living with other people, one thing you should remember is that, it is God that has brought you together and you must continue to live together. People who are claiming 50 per cent or so because the oil, according to them, is located there, what contribution have they made in bringing the oil there? Is it by the exertion of their power, influence or intelligence? God just decided to keep it there. If you make this agitation, supposing they give it to them and later on, the people of the local government where the oil is located say okay since the oil is located in our local government, 52 per cent of that oil should go to our local government. Then, the people of the town where the oil is located will say, it is located in our own town, give us the 52 per cent. It is unfortunate. When the entire country was being fed with cocoa, groundnut and palm oil, why didn’t the Western people say give us 52 per cent? Why didn’t the North say give me 59 per cent and why didn’t the East say give me this, this and this?
You should know that it is not possible for the resources to be located everywhere or in the entire country. It must be in a part of a country. That does not lie on that part of the country to dictate to the other parts of the country, if we want to live together. People like (Mujahid) Asari-Dokubo should be cautioned. You don’t make unguarded statements. Anyway, his case is understandable. He is not lettered. People are talking about war. It is those who have never suffered from war that talk about war.
If you want to live together, please know two things. One, the resources of the country must be located only in one section or few sections of the country; it can’t be in every town. Two, if you have to live together, there must be mutual respect and tolerance. It is like my brother, Rochas Okorocha (Imo State Governor), who started saying that people should register. He schooled in Jos and stayed all his life in Jos. Is that a person who wants to be president? Is he a leader? A leader does not think of the section he comes from; he thinks of entire nation. We are not thinking of the entire nation; that is why we are failing. That is why I have continued to tell people not to elect somebody on bases of religion and ethnicity, but somebody who can perform.
Applying the derivation principle on whatever is produced in any region.
If you say the same percentage should apply, three things will happen. The central government will be too weak; it will have no resources. If the central government is too weak, there is likely going to be crisis and balkanisation. The Supreme Court has already decided on it – whether oil or no oil. In fact, with oil, they said almost 90 per cent of our oil resources are offshore. That is in the sea. And our nautical boundary is 350 nautical miles.
Recommendations on creation of additional states and abolition of local government
Abolish the local government because not all the local governments can sustain themselves. This is the same thing with states. Most of the states cannot sustain themselves. We have six geo-political zones. Why not make them six states? The existing states cannot maintain themselves; why create more? What we have is what is called the logic of alligator. You cannot sustain yourselves now, yet you say you want more burden. Do you know what alligator does? Once it threatens to rain and alligator is sure it is going to rain, it will say it doesn’t want the rain to beat it; it will run to hide in the river. Is it not the same thing here? The present ones cannot sustain themselves, and you say you are creating 18 more. I think that is not wise enough. What they should do is merge the states, not to create more. With the greatest respect, that is totally illogical.
Scrapping the local government system
The local governments should be scrapped because they are not serving their purposes. Do you know what happens in most of the local government areas, including my own? When they get their allocation, they go and sit under one particular tree, like in my area, and share the money. Tell me, what development has any local government made to your own local government? The irony of this thing is that Nigerians do not learn. They think that government money is individual money and they share it instead of using it to develop. They have not lived up to their expectations at all. I have not seen any.
Councils’ complaint of being starved of funds by states
Their money should not come through the state; it should come to them directly. But the issue is, will they stop sharing this money? Like in the South South, do you know what happens? They share the money with the chiefs and kings? Look at the road from Port Harcourt Airport to the town. With all the money Rivers State gets, do you know the road is full of potholes? If I may ask, why do some of our leaders think that government money is private money? And you think you will not be questioned on the Day of Judgment? Even here, you will be questioned, not to wait until the Day of Judgment. If you see somebody whose child is myopic, whose child is drunk, whose child does not do well at all; ask about the source of the resources he uses to train the child. That is the law of Karma.
Non-implementation of confab outcome
Olusegun Obasanjo did not take his own to the National Assembly. Obasanjo brought Niky Tobi for this thing. When they did it, I think Obasanjo wanted a third term, and when that did not go through, he dumped the recommendation. Even in the case of the Electoral Act chaired by Justice Mohammed Uwais, which would have brought sanity into our electoral system, Obasanjo dumped it. My prayer is that this one should not be dumped.
Implementation of the report before 2015
The 2015 general election is around the corner, and it is not possible for them to do justice to the report before the election. President Jonathan, who set up the conference, and members of the National Assembly, who should implement the report, are going for the election and 90 per cent of them may not return. As it has been the case, elected members may decide to keep the report in view, until God knows when.
Neither you nor I know what the outcome of the 2015 elections will be; so I cannot answer that. The only thing is that whoever has the nationalistic feeling should pray for continuity. I don’t know what the outcome will be; you don’t know what the outcome will be. Our only prayer is that we should pray to God that it should be peaceful. I am not a politician. I don’t even like any of our political parties because none of them has seriously impressed me in the way politics is being played in this country. I said none. Politics is not being played the way we see it played abroad. That is most unfortunate.
Alternative to any of the political parties
I don’t hide my feelings. If they want me to like the political parties, we should change our attitude. I don’t like this politics of bitterness, politics of trying to bring the other person down at all costs. I asked one of my clients, who is a staunch politician, to tell me which political party in Nigeria has an ideology. He could not answer. So, if a political party has no ideology and is just for sharing of offices, do you call that a party? It should not be like a village gathering. I think we should get more serious.
Assessing the Independent national Electoral Commission (INEC)
Before the governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states, I was one of those who felt, and sincerely too, that Professor Attahiru Jega had totally failed. But with the elections in Ekiti and Osun, I think INEC is trying to wake up. Like I told you, I am not a politician, and so I don’t have sympathy for any political party and I don’t think I will have in future. I think we should praise the present government for not interfering in those two elections. He should do the same in 2015.