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•Says absorbing repentant terrorists dangerous move by govt
Elder statesman and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Mike Ahamba, SAN, has accused President Bola Tinubu, an acclaimed democrat who risked his life to fight for democracy, of supervising the killing of democracy in the country by trying to destroy opposition political parties.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, the legal luminary also advised the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Joash Amupitan, to excuse himself from the conduct of the 2027 elections, noting that he could not be a referee in a match in which many people are complaining about his neutrality.
What are your expectations for the 2027 general elections?
My expectation is that the ruling party does not expect an opponent at the election. They are doing everything to make sure that there is no opponent at the election, which is very unfortunate, but there are going to be opponents. At least, if there is no political party opponent, the people of Nigeria will be the opponents.
So what do you think will happen if the ruling party doesn’t want any opposition?
It is something that is now on the front burner of discussions. This particular party, the APC, wants to develop the APC into a single party in Nigeria. No opposition, nothing. It’s not right.
How can you say you are a good wrestler, and when you come to a wrestling ground, you want to make sure that nobody challenges you?
Let everybody come and contest. They are controlling 31 governors; they are controlling 31 state legislatures, and are also in control of the national legislature.
With all the personalities there, why can’t they risk facing an opponent? They want to destroy the PDP, African Democratic Congress (ADC), the Labour Party (LP); destroy every party, and they say they have won. God will not allow that.
Tinubu is seen as someone that fought for democracy, yet you’re saying he doesn’t want the opposition. How do you juxtapose the two?
That is the surprise of the times, that a man who risked his life to fight for democracy is now supervising a situation in which democracy is being killed. It’s unfortunate. It’s really a contradiction . It will not work; I want to repeat, it will not work.
During the amendment of the Electoral Act, Nigerians had expected that the transmission of election results in real time was going to be a strong point in the Act, but that hope wasn’t realised. What’s your take on this?
It’s unfortunate. In this modern world, it’s a shame that Nigeria says it can’t transfer results from polling booths straight to the INEC portal. It’s not a very complimentary assessment of the country by those who are ruling it.
We’ll see how that will be between now and January or February when they’ll conduct the first election, which is the presidential election.
Why would they not in the circumstance make sure that there’s network all over the country?
This time around, there’ll be no electricity to work anything in the rural areas.
Let me tell you this. They have experimented something in Imo State during the last local government election, where they announced results without figures for the winner because not even themselves voted.
This is very unfortunate. In an election where nobody voted, and winners were announced without figures attached to them. That is what one is seeing in this APC era. It won’t work ooh! God will not allow it to work; God working through the people of Nigeria will not allow it to work.
There has been some controversies about the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Joash Amupitan. He has even been accused of having sympathy for the ruling party. What’s your position on this?
If such groups have come out to say that it’s not acceptable, I plead with the president to hearken to their cries because you cannot be a referee in a match where everybody is complaining about your neutrality. I expect Amupitan, considering his status both in the academia and in the legal profession, to honourably excuse himself from that type of situation.
There’s no smoke without fire. And if the people you are going to referee a match for have already decided that you are going to be biased, it’s not safe for you even to go into the field.
You should honourably excuse yourself from the election. This is my view. If I were in his shoes, I would simply resign. Yes, because enough points have been made that he’s biased. He cannot administratively tamper with political parties. He cannot do that; but he’s been doing that.
Look at the type of fire he set into the ADC. I’m not a member of the ADC. Look at what he’s done there, which is very unfortunate. Now, why this race in putting an election in January when you know there are matters in court to determine the status of the parties?
You have already fixed it because the constitution allows you to fix timetable, and you have fixed it in a manner that will inconvenience other political parties. What type of thing is that?
He should be held accountable for anything that happens to this country right now. Let us not just expect that all these parties will just keep quiet and allow him to manipulate the country the way he likes and declare results maybe the way they did in Imo Local Government elections without figures attached to the winners.
INEC said an independent investigation has cleared Prof Amupitan of allegations that he was supporting APC. What is your reaction to this?
It is a very serious issue. Let it go to a neutral body. I will hope that somebody will go to court to challenge him; his competence to be the INEC chairman, particularly, if he had an account and he denies it, which has a lot to do with his credibility. So, I’m not in a position to judge on that.
If actually he had that account and he denied it, that denial is what I hold on to, not his having the account. Let’s be serious. It happened in this country, and you cannot say that there are no people who knew that he was a member of APC; people must know it. That is a problem we have in Nigeria, when somebody is in power; a particular political party think they will be here forever. Nothing human is forever.
So the best thing is when you are in charge, make it comfortable for yourself and for everybody else, and not to make it only comfortable for yourself and uncomfortable for others because you may have a problem in the future being the person who will be the victim. It has happened before. APC just came to power in 2015 nationally.
PDP was there, and today it is the victim. At that time, PDP was there, APC was one of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and All Nigerians Peoples Party (ANPP), and they were complaining.
Somebody in the PDP (which of course I must tell you, it’s my party till now) was saying that they’ll be there for 60 years. They were not; where are they now? So, the thing I want to tell APC, you can’t be there forever. It’s not possible.
They’re accusing former Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Malami, and former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-rufai, and are dragging them around. If they have committed an offence, I have no objection to that. I’m not condoning that. What I’m condemning is that everything they accused them of doing, did they do it after they left the APC or while they were there?
And if they did commit that offence while they were at the APC, why were they not arrested at that time?
El-rufai was there, not as ADC governor, but as APC governor. Malami was the Attorney General under APC for many years.
If they acquired property illegally, if they diverted money or anything, I’m not commenting on that because I don’t know the facts. I’m not here to defend anybody. But all I’m saying is this, whatever they were alleged to have done, were supposed to have been done when they were serving under APC.
Why were they not arrested at that time by EFCC and ICPC? You can see a clear case of political victimisation. It was Adams Oshiomhole who said come into APC and all your sins will be forgiven, and that’s why all the governors rushed into that party. Who knows what they might have done that they want to cover?
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It’s unfortunate; what has happened in Nigeria is unfortunate. The bitterness in the society is palpable, and they should know it. I only pray that if anything goes wrong, may God provide Noah’s Ark for the innocent.
The Tinubu government has been on a borrowing spree. There are reports that some MDAs like Customs, NPA and others are overshooting their revenue targets, but the budget is not being funded. What do you say to this?
People of Nigeria should hold the government responsible for unaccountability. They have to hold them responsible because all these things they are borrowing are on Nigerians’ heads.
Nigerians will have to pay it eventually. It’s unfortunate. Borrow, borrow, borrow every day, and yet, we are not funding the budget.
Do you know that in the Federation Account under the Constitution, the money is shared among the federal, the state and local government? You are a pressman; you can go to the Accountant General Office and see how much is taken away before the sharing.
Whatever responsibility the Constitution has given to the federal government should be serviced from their own share of the federation account. Whatever that is given to the state government should be the same thing; ditto the local government. How come you now deduct things that belong to the federal government from the central fund before sharing to the three tiers of government? Is it right? This is what is going on. It is a pity really.
The World Bank has said that about N34 trillion was not accounted for in the Federation Account, but the federal government said it’s not true. What do you have to say about this?
The World Bank would not just wake up and say what it couldn’t validate. The money is taken away before it goes to federal, state, or local government. They become funds that are not budgeted because they’re in the air; they’re blowing in the air. This is what is going on. They can’t deny that this is what is going on.
Insecurity is escalating every day, but the government behaves as if all is well. How can this issue be addressed?
It is a pity. The people should take note of it and make sure that this government does not come back, because if they come back, it would continue. Let me tell you something about insecurity. I don’t know if Nigerians have realised that there are two sets of people who do this insecurity.
One group is called bandits, while another group is called terrorists.
Now, these two groups are not the same. They don’t have the same objective. Those who are bandits are economically motivated.
They are people who feel they have been cheated in the society by not being educated when they should have been educated, particularly in the north. They are now getting back on the society by kidnapping and acquiring money. I’m talking about cause, not effect.
The other people are looking for territory; the terrorists are looking for territory. They want to frighten people out of some areas in order to occupy those areas for religious purposes. So, when you see this type of thing happening, it is good to identify them well so that we can fight them properly.
One is economic, while the other is religious. Definitely, that is how it is. Those who are there for economic purposes are the bandits, while those who are there for religious purposes are the terrorists. This is the truth of the matter. When the bandits kidnap, they ask for money. Terrorists go to kill and destroy cities. That’s what you’ll be reading in newspapers and be seeing on television.
How can this scourge be arrested because it seems to be getting out of hand?
This situation can be arrested when the government realises that even their own supporters will suffer if they don’t take hold of this thing.
How can you be in power, and you don’t even take steps to protect even your own? There’s no community that has no combination of members of political parties. You have members of APC, ADC, PDP, LP and other political parties in a community. If for any personal purpose you allow something to happen, your own people will also suffer. If the economy is bad, your own wives will go to the same market to buy.
The surprising thing is that they don’t seem to realise that everybody is angry with them. Handing a packet of noodles to a person is not the solution to an economic situation, and you call it palliative. That’s not a solution. Palliative is never a solution to a problem.
There was a time we heard about settlements, which was the acronym of corruption. Today, the acronym of corruption is empowerment.
So, the easiest way to go and bribe people is to say you’re empowering them. You empower somebody with half a bag of rice or one quarter bag of rice. Have you empowered the person? You haven’t created anything? No, instead, everything that made people to be independent, you have allowed to go. You have no electricity. Even the man who needs power to sell soft drinks cannot sell them. They’re not restoring any manufacturing companies in Nigeria; everything is just going down.
Every time you carry rice and go to distribute to women, you said you have empowered them. Palliative doesn’t solve any problem. What are you doing to make sure that people can survive on their own? That’s the important thing for the government to do.
During COVID 19, I saw a situation where two families were given a tuber of yam to share, and they called it palliative. I said, oh, cry, beloved country, cry.
Where do you stand on the issue of repentant terrorists being integrated into the society and the military?
It is the worst mistake that the government has made. Those people should be kept under surveillance for some years before you can utilise them in the society. These are people who should be serving jail terms, and you want to bring them back into the society.
Those who went into the army are the reason our generals are being killed, because there are people who are in the armed forces today who are part of their system. They give information to the opponents.
In the military situation, the worst thing that can happen to any military unit is to have its movement leaked to the opponent ahead of time.
But it’s happening to Nigerian military; it’s happening to the police. This is because of symbiotic insurgency happening in our own security forces.
Yes. We have it. Now, nobody knows where you put these people, and they stay somewhere and are giving information to terrorists or bandits.
If you want to forgive, forgive, I’m a Christian; but you don’t put such people in a situation where they can do further harm because you cannot de-indoctrinate them as much as they were indoctrinated before they were arrested. It is a dangerous move that the government made.
You have trending videos of some state governments entering into peace accords with terrorists, and at the end of the meeting, military men were seen escorting the terrorists. What is your view on this?
It is a surrender to superior power. Any formation doing that has conceded that the group to which they are surrendering to is stronger.
There was a time terrorists killed a senior police officer, and the leader wore the uniform of the killed police officer to the peace meeting, and after that, they addressed the press and photographs were taken, and they moved away.
I can’t understand what is happening. I’m not an expert in this field, but I can do better than most of them. I can’t understand how we risk it.
Look at the other day, in a kindergarten school, children of about two years were carted away, and until today, they were yet to be released. And we say that nobody saw their movements; nobody knows the road through which they moved.
About 200 people were taken, and nobody knows the road through which they moved? Have you seen 50 people moving together? How come that they didn’t pass anybody on the road; nobody saw which direction they moved? It’s a pity.
This kidnapping thing has become a huge business. It’s unfortunate.
