Nigerians should blame themselves for putting too much hope in Buhari -Ojo

Olasupo Ojo, a former chairman, Committee for Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), is the Secretary, Constitution Review Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). In this interview with INIOBONG IWOK, Ojo assesses the anti corruption war of this administration, the defection of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), among other issues.

What is your view of Atiku leaving APC to PDP?
Atiku has a right as a Nigerian to join any political party he wants to join and leave when he wants; it is permitted in the Nigerian law.

Belonging to a political party is a matter of interest, where it would be best protected. Atiku has been in several parties in the country, he knows what they are all about.

If you look at the philosophy of the two parties, they are the same and he knows the political party where his interest would be best protected and he has been in the two parties before, if it is PDP he is free to move.

If there is anyone who can access the two parties he is the one, considering his experience with them. If you look at APC and PDP there is no much difference between the two parties.

But people have criticised his move, that he is always decamping from different parties?
Whoever is having such thought should forget it. Because when the law gives you right, it does not look at the moral side of it, it is about the interest, where he thinks he would be best protected.

I think Nigerians should respect Atiku’s views and position on this issues, he must have a reason for making the move.

Can he get the ticket of the PDP?
Nobody can say for now who is going to emerge as the candidate of the parties. But I have the information that Atiku would have defeated Buhari hands down in their last primaries in 2014, if not for some forces that worked against him.

But I do not support the current system which allows Nigerians to vote for only candidates presented by political parties: that is why the voting population is always low during elections; when you compare that to the number of registered voters.

We need to encourage independent candidacy in the country at all levels. I want to contest as independent candidate in my state and I am sure a lot of people want to contest too;

But this current system is not making us contribute our quota to the country, I am sure the country would be much better for it, with the latest amendment of the law allowing independent candidate.

How do you assess Buhari’s administration, more than two years after?
Buhari has no administration, what we have is the administration of the APC; the law says nobody can form a government without the party wining election.

The failure of this government means the failure of the party; it is the party that asked him to help them form the government.

Personally his policies have not worked, what has changed since this government took over power in the country? The APC has not changed anything in Nigeria.

This administration has been a total failure, things are still the same and in some cases it has gotten worse in the country.

When I was the president of CDHR, I asked for the press briefing files since 1989, that was about 20 years after the creation of CDHR: after going through the files I realised that it has been the same issues that has been bothering Nigeria that is what has been affecting us for a very long time, even when Buhari was the military head of state;

it is still the same issues of corruption, lack of health care, bad roads and lack of stable electricity, but look back over the years, and today nothing has really changed. The standard of living has even gotten worse, and unemployment among our people is high.

How do you assess his anti graft war?
I don’t think Buhari understands what corruption is in this present time and age; he lacks the knowledge to fight corruption.

Nigerians should have themselves to blame for putting too much hope in Buhari, he does not understand what it takes to fight corruption and governance dynamics in the present age.

The country is bigger than him to govern, he is an old man; what has he done with the Ministry of Petroleum he assigned to himself?

Not to talk of the whole country. You need people who understands what governance is all about; and he has left out these people from governance, he seem not to understand the mold of governance.

His ministers don’t what to overshadow him, because he is slow and is not moving at a reasonable pace.

What he is doing is wrong, it is not the best way of fighting corruption; what is happening is that you wait for them to steal the money and then you go after them.

The anti corruption war has failed, what has he done with all the people being caught? There are so many lope-holes in the country were this money is being siphoned and the government has not made any attempt to block it, does that show seriousness?

This shows how serious that is. I still pay money by hand in some government agencies and ministries, nothing has changed. Corruption is rather becoming high, and the institutions he set up to fight corruption are not working.

Do you believe in the call for restructuring?
I don’t believe in this system; it is not working, is it not obvious? Why concentrate power to some few people in the centre, leaving the states bankrupt?

We need to collapse this system into smaller units and give power to the states. We need to devolve power to the states, so it can be close to the people.

Look at the process of budgeting, the lawmakers would just put things anyhow into the budget because they know the President is weak.

Should Nigerians expect a change in 2019?
Change of government does not mean, or guarantee good governance: as long as we continue to practice this system, the country cannot develop or move forward.

In the olden days the regions were developing because power was in the hands of the regions who were moving at their own pace, there was competition among the regions until Aguiyi Ironsi came to create twelve states and the rest is history.

But if what we have is not working why can’t we go back and negotiate, we can negotiate our being together when what we have is not working.