Convener, Coalition for Good Governance and Justice, Mr Emmanuel Umohinyang (Esq), speaks on the state of insecurity, the recent pardon, and clemency by the Federal Government on 159 Nigerians, as well as the 2023 presidential election, in this interview with DEBORAH ONYOFUFEKE

The recent pardon of 159 Nigerians by the Federal Government, elicited a lot of criticism from so many quarters. What would be your reaction to this criticism?

Honestly, that pardon was uncalled for. That is one decision Mr President has taken that I feel let down and I say this with all sense of responsibility. When former President, Goodluck Jonathan, granted a similar pardon to Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, I took it upon myself to criticise the then President by putting out an article reported in one of the national dailies, with the caption: “Presidential Pardon and the Moral of Burden.” The President has the power to grant pardon under sections 175/1&2, however, it is expected that in exercising those presidential powers, the general interest of the public will be considered as against whatever preferential interest that the president may have, without plea, the principal actors for which this pardon are being given this government a bad name, had been that of Joshua Dariye of Plateau and Jolly Nyame of Taraba, you see, while that of Jonathan was a shameful act from the seating President, that of this current President (Buhari) has also left one in a state of shock and disbelief in the sense that in this particular case, the indicted victims were still in custody serving their jail term unlike, Alamieyeseigha, a case where he had served and was already out of custody. This was a case where the defendants were still serving their various jail terms, and it left Nigeria in a state of disbelief. That a government that has come on the tripod of stopping insecurity; uplifting the life of Nigerians by improving the economy; and most importantly, beating corruption. I feel so bad, worn out, and I couldn’t believe it until I laid my hands on the newspapers to confirm that this happened. Unfortunately too, while I blame Mr President who is the head of the government, I must say that the action of (Abubakar) Malami, the Attorney-General and the Federation, has not represented this government. I must admit, in all honesty, that the AGF had been a disgrace to this administration in terms of the quality of advice he gives out, even representation in making, the media, the body language of the AGF does not suggest that he is in terms with this government with the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration on the issue of corruption. I feel so sad because this whole thing will emanate from the Office of the AGF. The AGF has the application for such and the advice, the council of state all emanate from the Office of the AGF. I may not necessarily have a problem with the convicts that were pardoned, because you could say yes, under the military law, these are criminal behaviour, however, the concern of Nigeria had been on defendants who were jailed for obvious corruption acts as sitting governors of their state. You saw Buhari pardon even when they have not served out their jail term. It is indeed shameful. It couldn’t have been the Muhammadu Buhari administration, an administration that had the core of its strength to take away the system of corruption. You cannot on one hand be fighting corruption and on another hand, be forgiving those whom the court had jailed for corruption. When you look at cases under the watchful eyes of the AGF, Stella Oduah, the N255m car purchase scandal, which case has elapsed in the court, and you look at the Orji Uzor Kalu’s case which had gone wrong in the Supreme Court and was referred for trial and did not go, nobody is saying anything about it. Various other cases are being pursued by the government in courts across the land. All we could do is to go back to the prison and get those whom the court had successfully, prosecuted their matter up to the Supreme Court and the apex court had affirmed their conviction. Why should the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration be involved in this type of shenanigans? Why must the President allow this, even when we knew that Malami the Attorney General is not a friendly person when it comes to the fight against corruption? Of course, we know what he’s doing is because he is a politician and that is why some of us have agitated that, that office must be separated. The office of the Attorney and the Federation must be separated from that of the Minister of Justice. Because the man is looking at the governorship ambition in Kebbi and so the story that goes with it is that, anything that would not help his ambition, he will not allow the government to prosecute the three SAN of his administration, So, I blame the president, as the head of the government and the migrated rainbow of the AGF, who has shown, obviously, from his body language, from his interview, he has shown that he is not with this administration when it comes to the fight against corruption. Why must he be running after the yahoo boys when the big thieves are been released to go and sin no more. I do not agree with Mr Femi Falana’s position that the prison doors should be opened for petty thieves to go home but it is a fact that the mere fact that we could release someone who stole N1.6 billion, then these are discriminatory to those who stole a goat, who stole sachet of water. If at all, it shouldn’t be this government, it shouldn’t be the Buhari administration that should be found in this trajectory.

Do you agree with the arguments that the pardon has made a total mockery of the fight against corruption and that millions of dollars used in prosecuting these corrupt persons that have been granted pardons have gone down the drain?

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Variably yes and we must also admit that the money spent for prosecution generally is expensive and I think that is also why the government at times plays back in where a man admits to his crime and then later sentence his board. I still find it unbelievable that the Buhari administration can be found, and can be caught in this trajectory. We all stood against Jonathan’s administration when he granted pardon to Alamieyeseigha. Indeed it is shameful, this embarrassing. This is not the government all stood up for. I am not saying the government has not done anything but I am saying that we cannot, we should not. We should be looking at how we can get more convicts not for us to go and allow, release a man who is still serving jail term, I do not agree with this position and that’s why I’ve also called and advocated that provision of Section 1 of the Constitution as serially amended be reviewed and let us reform. Going forward, the Constitution should be reviewed in such a way and manner that, a two/third majority of the National Assembly concept will be incurred before any pardon is granted to any Nigerian because if we don’t do that, we will continue to run through this process. The issue of the Council of State, giving advice, is neither here nor there. I will not even hold the council of states liable for this, that body is advisory and the government has to accept or reject any advice from the council of states so, therefore, I blame Mr President, I blamed the Attorney General of the Federation,

Going by this negative downturn, do you think those who looted and are still looting the economy have been given the free hand to continue?

When you tell a man to go and sin no more when the court has successfully prosecuted, convicted a man, and he was serving his jail term, it’s only a wrong signal you are sending. Not just to Nigerians who have refused to be part of this stealing gang, but you have also encouraged those who are still thinking, even under this administration that doesn’t worry, when I get there, some can even begin to make jokes of it, don’t worry when I become the president, forget about the conviction, that you have been convicted when I get to the office of the president, I will grant you pardon. So it’s a case of who is there? Whose brother is in custody grant him pardon. So it has completely made a mockery of our justice system. Also, the custodian centre has been made a mockery of the custodian sentence suit has also made a mockery of our justice system. Even the prosecuting agency, what do you then make of the EFCC and the ICPC? Or the code of conduct or even the police. If it’s just the case of taking people to court, and those people can laugh at them and say see, my brother will soon be president, I will be granted a pardon. Whatsoever you have spent will become a waste. You are not encouraging the prosecution agencies, you are not encouraging the actionable agencies to do their work. Apathy will set in and the people will then have to take justice into their hands. The way we have always gone. The Buhari administration, one of the cardinal policies of this administration is that we will tackle corruption headlong. I agree that pardon should be granted but not to the extent where we have to demean the anti-corruption crusade that the administration put out before Nigerians. It shouldn’t have been the Buhari’s administration. That would be caught doing this or be found wanting. In this regard, this admission has a whole lot to do with Nigerians. The little conviction we have secured, I thought that the government would have preserved while continuing pursuing those who have been left off the hook but you must also look at it that Mr President is relying on the Attorney-General of the Federation. A man who is expected to act on the part of the people but not Abubakar Malami. The AGF has shown from day one when he was appointed Minister that he was not in the office to fight corruption. He is not in the office to help the president to achieve his aim. The first time he was on television, you heard him talk about petty thieves that have been convicted. Flooding himself with such garment. I was ashamed. As a cardinal supporter of this administration. I was embarrassed, it was repulsive that this administration could take this line even think about it not to talk of implementing this line of thought.

There was a recent report that terrorist attacks in Nigeria have overtaken that of Iraq and one would have thought that with the recent purchase of military equipment, especially the Tucano jet, attacks would have declined, in your view, what is happening?

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We must give the Buhari administration some credit. Yes, we are still having challenges with security but are we where we were before the administration came on board? The answer is no. So, when people begin to refer to the Tucano aircraft that was procured by this administration, they have failed. They are speaking from a position of sincere ignorance. What were the terms for procurement? There were certain guides, and are they saying that because of the insecurity we should go out of the agreement that we signed with the manufacturers? Of course, the President is not sleeping over it. They are tackling the challenges. Unlike what we had in the past, if the previous administration had these weapons on the ground I do not think the Buhari administration will be spending so much on procuring weapons but there was nothing on the ground and you know these weapons are not things you pick over the shelf, these are weapons you must apply, you must take consent for sale, these are weapons it will take years for it to be produced and then you bring in and retrain your men on usage. So, the Tucano jets took several years for them to be procured. The hanger that was done in Nigeria was done by the Americans. Nigerians are being trained on its usage. What was the super Tucano made for? They were made to take care of terrorists with the challenge we are having, we have been successfully able to reduce the rising profile of those terrorists. We have had a different challenge for bandits. Those who have to pick our brothers and sisters and demand ransom. Is the government just watching over it? The answer is no. The police are dealing with it, our military officers are not sleeping. We must look at a comparative analysis will be looking at where we were in 2015 and look at where we are now. You will discover that even during the previous administration, the city of Abuja was not a safe place to go, and go to church, you must have done a lot of security work before the Sunday arise for you to go to church. Even the comment made lately by Rev. Fr. Mathew Coker, it’s quite unfortunate.

But the constitutional role of the government is to secure the lives of its citizens, don’t you see a failure in this direction?

I agree. The government has the financial capacity to secure the lives of the people as propagated by the constitution of our country. However, the citizens also have a role to play in their security, and what are those roles, giving out information, sharing intelligence with security agencies, ideas on how the government can tackle some of these challenges, also can come from the citizens. So, we mustn’t make insecurity look as if, it is the duty of the Abuja politicians, it is the duty of the government in power.

Even the politicians themselves have come out to say they can no longer go to their villages because of insecurity, do you think they are just raising the alarm?
You see when you raised the issue of politicians or those in government, I think we must distinguish it. By the Constitution, in Section 14, sub 2, the government must provide security and welfare for its people. Is the Buhari administration failing in that regard? The answer is no! Are there challenges we need to confront? Yes. Can the government do it alone? The answer is No. Look at the train attack in Kaduna, there were villages, people were living around the villages, and there was movement. Do they have a duty to share information with security agencies as regards strangers around their vicinity the answer is yes? I’m sure that even you, wherever you see people whom you don’t feel comfortable with, persons you feel shouldn’t be around your vicinity, I know you will make effort to reach out to the nearest security agency, the nearest divisional police offices to inform them of those strange movements you have observed. This is our duty as citizens while the government is to activate the actionable agencies to make sure that the crisis or the beefed security threat is done. So, when you said politicians said they cannot go to their villages, the question you should ask is what have they done? What role have they played to help the government tackle the insecurity in their villages?

The ruling APC recently pegged its presidential nominations forms at N100m and it attracted a lot of criticism, what is your take on it?

My concern has been on the main political parties have structured their operation. Just last week, you heard the leading party, All Progressives Congress, APC, at their NEC meeting pegging the presidential ticket at N100m. This is the classic case of giving someone something with the right hand and taking it back with the left hand. They went ahead to say that people below 40 years will have a 50 per cent discount and what that means is that for a young man of 37, 35, to 40 who wishes to aspire to be president of Nigeria at that age, such a man must go look for N50m and I don’t know under which dispensation can any youth raise such amount of money for the form. Now, this is not the election, so the same thing applies to the PDP where the form is placed at about N40m as well, so you then look at other political parties, N30m, N20m, they are all in millions, and then how do you get the youth, how do you get a nobleman in his N30m to raise N40m. From where will he raise such money? These are one of the questions I have always advocated until we begin to diversify money politics, from our political system, we are going nowhere. I sympathise with those who set up this drama called third force. That has become a perennial issue, every four years, you see some group of people gathered, who have not a naira to start a political platform and say they are raising a third force. Some of my good friends too who are in the system and advocated as at 2019, some of them, areas the youth should concerned should be the National Assembly because without us changing laws and making it friendly, for Nigerians to participate, we will continue to bow to the God of money in our political drive. It is the rich that will always carry the day. Don’t forget that this is just a nomination form and that the real election, wins the candidacy of the political party. In the real election, you just have to look for what to sell to raise money and prosecute the election. So, what the people should be looking at from 2023, coming from the background of the relative success that President Muhammadu Buhari has recorded under his administration, we should be looking at somebody who can and not just promise because all we have always been hearing has been.

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“I will, I will” the people must begin to interrogate, how will you achieve the manifesto you have set up, not just putting out a beautiful wonderful manifesto, because you don’t just make promises and by the time you are elected, you turn your back against the people and secondly, you also know that within my political atmosphere, politicians immediately they are elected, the first thing they are changes in them is their human attitude. The next thing that changes is their telephone number, the third thing that changes is their personality because at that point, Security operatives surround them and at that point they become unreachable. So the people must interrogate every manifesto put out by every contestant and then we can now go with whom we think can now deliver and being the president of Nigeria is not for the lily liver, I have seen some candidates who have no business being a local government chairman, they have also entered the race to be president, however, it is their constitutional right to so aspire but Nigerians must owe it to themselves to say no. We must look for the best, irrespective of zone, irrespective of his religion, his belief, his tribe. I have always advocated for many against zoning.

Zoning was indeed brought in to help caution the cushion the effect of alienation from other tribes and other zones, so therefore, even if we decide to pursue the object of zoning, we must lookout for the best from such a Zone to lead the country. Enough of excuses, enough of trial and error, we must look at people’s antecedent