Nigeria not practicing democracy, only paying lip service to it -Ojo
Kunle Ojo, a constitutional lawyer and human rights activist is also a political commentator. In this interview with INIOBONG IWOK, Ojo assesses the democratic journey in the country, the Buhari anti graft war and the state of the judiciary among others.
How would you assess democracy in Nigeria, amidst concerns that progress has been slow?
The truth as to be said is that given the peculiarity of Nigeria and Nigerians, It could be concluded and said that what we call nascent democracy, which naturally having taken ten, fifteen and more years cannot be and should not be called nascent again.
Nigeria is crawling and regressing rather than moving forward, because no development has taken place since the advent of democracy in the country.
The principles of democracy has not advanced beyond when we started, rather it is going down.
There is standard, democracy should bring freedom, certain standard of living to the people, separation of power and rule of law, this is not the situation, but this has not been the case, rather it is deteriorating.
If participation is what we call democracy then our people cannot say they have participated, because they are still being induced before they vote for candidates in elections in the country. Democracy is still in the pipeline in the country.
Also, with the high level of illiteracy in the country, about 70 percent of our people are illiterates, that would affect the way they think, the way they make their choices and understand the electoral process.
How can these people understand why they are voting, and judge their leaders? The growth you are talking about cannot be said to be reality, it can be said to be an idea.
But a lot of people would say things are not that bad and progress has been made in some areas?
The difference between an idea and reality is that, idea has not been actualised into reality. And until it is actualised it remains an idea.
Most of the people voting during election in Nigeria are induced and that is why the politician doesn’t have that sense to deliver after being voted and they assume office.
In better climes, you don’t hear politician say they sell their houses to contest election and wining election an being in public office does not make them special human, they still carry their bags, enter the same bus with the people, send their children to public schools and buy in the same market.
But here in Nigeria when voters are induced before voting for candidates it is like the future is mortgaged, you don’t see them again until when they want to seek re- election.
We cannot say we are practising democracy, democracy has not kicked off in Nigeria, we are only paying lip service to that.
Even the media that you are talking about we know what happens there: most of the stories going into the newspaper are paid for, we know what journalist still do, even in the judiciary we see lawyers working with judges to compromise the system.
How will you assess the present set of Federal lawmakers?
The National Assembly are not doing what they should do, that is making law for the country, because if you look outside people are still talking about restructuring and returning to regional government.
We have a house that is big and useless to us and it does not bother them, they don’t care about adjusting, given the power and resources at their disposal, why can’t they think of laws that would alleviate the poverty in the country?
Look at the area of mining, it is still in the exclusive list, even if the deposit is in your backyard you cannot tap it, that is why most of the states are like this, why can’t they think of amending the law.
Do you support the call for a uni-cameral legislature?
Bi-cameral does not suit us well, because as you can see the current system is too expensive. But look at the states where we have unicameral houses they are still wasteful and are rubber stamp to the executive, they are not delivering.
Most of the state Assemblies have failed and I strongly think our legislative process should be made on part-time basis.
It is about money and power, they would always be ready to compromise, except they reduce the amount of money given to them they would never do anything to favour us.
How do you assess the President Buhari administration?
There was high expectation when Buhari was coming in. The level of rot he met on the ground was somehow, now the question I would ask is which area of endeavour has he been able to deal with? Nothing has been done.
If you say corruption, I would say no, because corruption has increased and the President does not have the political will to deal with those close to him who are corrupt, corruption has grown,
or how do you explain the Maina saga, I don’t have hope that such issues can be addressed because for him to be brought back to office in the first place is surprising.
He as a right to aspire that is left for his party, in Nigeria there are so many factors that can count during election that is why I say we don’t have democracy in Nigeria, if Nigerians choose to elect him again fine.
Do you still believe in the anti graft war?
I believe in the anti corruption war, but as you can see, those in government have been sabotaging it and the President is still retaining them.
I believe in the anti corruption war, but I don’t believe it would be successful because the country’s President do not have the will to remove the people close to him. I am not surprised, this is Nigeria, if you are there you would do the same.
But there has been a committee set up to monitor corruption cases?
I don’t believe in the committee, because if they really want to do a thorough job they should not be made public. Why not extend it to the whole judiciary?
There is nothing wrong if the CJN have people all around the country that monitors the system and the judges.
But I think the judiciary should census itself, let them go round and see the way things are done, we should able to sanitise ourself.
But there has been concern about corruption in the judiciary and its present state?
I am bothered, the way the home of the judges were raided should tell us all is not well with the judiciary.
Of course, there have been questions about the process of appointment of judges, most of the judges support one governor or the other an it is unfortunate we have allowed ourselves to be used by politicians.
The judges spread money in parties, and in the home of some of them you find ten, twenty luxury cars, in the past judges live a frugal lifestyle, that is why people are losing interest in them.
There has been concern about recent judgement by judges?
The judiciary should have a standard so that you can say this is what the court would say at a time, but what we have now is that different people would interpret the law differently that is the issue.
I know there are doctrines in law, when we go to court people should be able to say this is what the law says. One of the problems of the court is the mode of appointment of judges, and it has been criticised, because it is about who you know.
We need to go back to the former system where you look and say based on your enthusiasm and dedication you are fit be a judge, I know there would always be some form of test and exam.
Do you think the PDP would regain power in 2019?
I don’t predict, the PDP contributed solely to our problem and the APC has not been able to solve it. I believe Nigerians should look for alternative.
There is no opposition in Nigeria, if you look at their ideology you would know there is no opposition, when you also look at the personalities in the two parties they are mostly the same people, I believe Nigerians should look for alternative in 2019.
Quote
We cannot say we are practising democracy, democracy has not kicked off in Nigeria, we are only paying lip service to that. Even the media that you are talking about we know what happens there: most of the stories going into the newspaper are paid for, we know what journalist still do, even in the judiciary we see lawyers working with judges to compromise the system.
