Buhari May End Up Worse Than Jonathan – Okwu

Chief Maxi Okwu, lawyer and politician, is a chieftain of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). In this interview with ROTIMI AKINWUMI, he took a look into the issue of inconclusive elections under the current leadership of INEC. He also gave his assessment of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.  Excerpts:

INEC in recent months is having challenges in conducting credible elections, it’s been one inconclusive election after another.  Who do we blame for this new trend; Is it INEC, executive arm of government or politicians?

It is rather unfortunate that this INEC under Professor Mahmoud Yakubu has been plagued by this phenomenon. Against the background of the recent history of INEC, it’s an embarrassing novelty. But it is not unknown to the Electoral Act 2010 as amended. Technically speaking, INEC has a legal ground to declare an election inconclusive on the grounds it has been doing, usually when it is a close election and the excluded or voided votes add up to being higher than the margin of victory. I would not necessarily lay blames on anyone; but it’s really embarrassing. Call it fate, call it misfortune,  it’s  a burden this INEC has carried so far. I will however add that the organisation must find a way to improve on its election management and restore public confidence. The acid test for a credible election is that the electorate in their estimation regard that the result as announced reflect their wishes.

Talking specifically about the postponed parliamentary elections in Rivers state,  INEC has said consistently that it would not hold the cancelled elections until it is sure there is adequate security for its staff to do their  job. INEC is using the violence in Rivers state as a justification, but the people of the state are not getting representation in the National Assembly.  What is the way out of this quagmire?

The level of desperation in Rivers State and the resort to violence to prevail has gone beyond all known limits. Not just in Rivers but all over Nigeria, politicians must eschew violence and show some modicum of democratic tolerance. But as the ultimate solution, we must find a way to make political or public office less attractive. The premium and returns on securing an election or public office is so huge that it encourages desperation and resort to extreme measures to make it. There is a lot of job for the National Orientation Agency to engage in massive national re-orientation and restoration of morals and ethics in our politics. INEC cannot conduct a credible election in an insecure and violence-prone atmosphere.

The House of Representatives is working on a Bill to grant immunity against prosecution while in office  to all presiding officers in the Federal parliament.  What is your opinion on this move?

It is to say the least, irresponsible. The popular mood is to roll back in the immunity granted to the executive. Their move is against the flow of public opinion and self serving. Part of the problems we have is that our legislators do not seem to understand their job description as legislators. They encroach on executive power by issuing directives to ministries and MDA’s. They go into contract awards through the so- called Constituency projects. Rather than make laws, they spend much needed legislative time debating motions that have no coercive effect. The historical underpinning of immunity for the sovereign is that all prosecution is brought in the name of the state and it will therefore be odd for the state to prosecute itself. In a modern republic, it has been redesigned to include shielding the Chief Executive from incessant distraction. However, as many things in our clime, it has been abused hence, public resentment on its continuation in present form.

The same lower Chamber is involved in a scandalous issue of Budget padding. The dramatis personae are opening cans of worm against one another. What is your opinion about what is being revealed in the House of Representatives?

It is great that the scandalous modus operandi for cornering public funds by the NASS is being exposed. This practice, I am sure is not new. I must give some credit to PMB for his insistence on a clean budget before appending his signature. Even at that, the elements of fraud still fought back and did not lose out completely. We see a similar thing in the ghost worker payroll by an established cabal in the civil service. Am surprised that the anti-graft agencies are yet to fully swing into operation and deal with the matter.

The Senate president is undergoing trials on two fronts.  He’s being tried at the CCT,  as well as a Federal high Court for two  different reasons.  He is still seated in office while some persons are of the opinion that he should have resigned honourably.  His loyalists are however saying he remains Innocent until proven guilty. What do you see to the scenario?

It’s not a matter of strict law. There are moral issues here. If we are to improve in our politics and ethics in public office,  Bukola Saraki should stand down. It is quite embarrassing continually seeing the Senate President of Nigeria in the dock like a common criminal. It is not about his person but the institution of  which he is the presiding office. We are talking about the Senate and collaterally the National Assembly of Nigeria. Saraki is dragging down the institution if not degrading it by his reliance on legal semantics..

Don’t you think his supporters have a point in their arguments that if he steps down now,  someone assume the position of the Senate president and he’s eventually found to be clean, getting his office back might not be possible as the new Senate President might not willingly relinquish power for him to return as Senate President?

Saraki does not own the Senate Presidency. He also was not born to be Senate President. We must begin to deepen and instill best practices in our political behaviour. Recall some years back when contemporaneous Atiku Abubakar and Jacob Zuma of South Africa  were having issues of corruption as Vice Presidents. Atiku stuck to his gun and refused to step down while Zuma did and later bounced back to become President. Atiku is still in the struggle today.

What is your assessment of the last one year of Buhari administration?

I have now come to the sad conclusion that based on one year and some months of President Buhari, the man may end up worse than Goodluck Jonathan . I had some close knowledge of the man during my days as Secretary General of the CNPP from 2003-2005. I was therefore aware of his limitations. However, knowing that Tinubu was the engine of the APC with his political machine, and given Buhari’s austere and disciplined lifestyle, I was hopeful for some intervention by way of an interregnum that would lead to a purposeful and progressive administration after PMB. For a man who sought the Presidency four times in a row, I am appalled by the pace of his administration when you juxtapose this with the fact that he has been there as military dictator in 1984-85.  He has shocked us by his apparent unpreparedness to be our president. Our economy is now in recession; there is hunger and angst in the land; insecurity has assumed a more dangerous dimension, and the country is more divided today than it was as at 29th May 2015. The nation seems to be in free fall, and our government seems to be at total loss on what to do. The pet area of war on corruption is more of motion and no movement. Like Bishop Kukah said, Buhari cannot fight corruption by tackling the symptoms and not the malaise. He has to make corruption and corrupt practices unattractive. In the anti-corruption initiative, it is clear Buhari is on his own.  He is not carrying his party APC, the National Assembly or the states along.