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Chukwudi Nweje
Olukayode Ajulo, a legal luminary and human rights activist is the former national secretary of the Labour Party (LP). In this interview, he bares his mind on sundry issues affecting the country.
The current administration has spent nearly three years in office, what is your assessment of its performance?
The present administration came to power riding on the goodwill of Nigerians. President Muhammadu Buhari was popularly elected in the hope that he would provide genuine alternative to the inanities and or inertia of the past administrations, alternative to the drought and hitches Nigerians battle every morning. Two years past now, the same old worries of Nigerians have not subsided. Instead, things have exponentially worsened. The rate of unemployment has rather taken farther shape with schools churning out graduates every year, yet the government is not creating jobs.
The government launders itself with the excuse that it is keeping a portion of the youth population with N-Power project with monthly stipend of N30, 000. But I dare ask, how can N30, 000 sustain an adult in the face of the present scorching economy? Even at that government is merely dealing with the effects while leaving the roots of the problem unattended to, and I tell you, the perennial indifference of government to the unemployment rate in the country is an attitude that will someday explode or implode.
Unemployment accounts for 85percent of the criminal activities in the country, yet government spends gigantic part of the tax payers’ money on security. What government gains from its lackadaisical attitude to unemployment it loses incrementally on dealing with security challenges. Look at the health sector in its near neglect state, yet the president and officers of the ruling party travel overseas even for analgesic, but the common man on the streets cannot access quality health care, where it’s available, the ordinary Nigerian cannot afford the medical bill. Prices of food stuffs became alarmingly outrageous and the government is not decisive in its handling of it. Insurgents and herdsmen kill Nigerians freely, rather than address that, the national discourse is shifted to whether colonies for cattle should be or not. Exchange rate becomes both head and heart aching. Generally speaking, the government has not been impressive; it has failed Nigerians.
The government was swift in dealing with Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Why has it not dealt with Fulani herdsmen Miyetti Allah in similar manner?
I said earlier how I fear that the putative warfare against killer Herdsmen is unrighteously politicised, and this is very informed. Permit me to recall OPC era during President Obasanjo’s tenure, I was one of OPC lawyers, Obasanjo despite being a Yoruba man and against other entries from Yoruba nobles and leaders outlawed OPC and detained its leaders, Dr. Fasehun, Aare Gani Adams and others for nearly a year before I moved a Federal High Court in Abuja to grant them reprieve. Now back to the present, a government who had the will to deal with Nnamdi Kanu’s IPOB with alacrity and blunt military action is the same government that has been lukewarm with the handling of the genocidal dealings of the Fulani herdsmen. That, to even fools, is double standards. This should not be. And you see, that is why the country that ought to be progressing fast, especially in democracy, seems to be retrogressing at alarming speed. Nothing qualifies an organisation to be called terrorist more than the present high scale of daily killings being unleashed on harmless and hapless children and women in Benue and other parts of the country. Terrorism is codified and outlawed in our jurisprudence, the organisation having the effrontery to own up to the killing with an untenable excused stands proscribed. Ironically I was their legal adviser during the presidency of Alhaji Dodo Oroji but this organisation is new and different. It now patently qualifies for proscription.
Talking about whether cattle colonies should be or not, Benue State has rejected the idea, it has also passed an anti -open grazing law. What is the way out?
The recent front burner recriminations over Herdsmen carnage and bloody rampage must be taken to new pedestals, beyond usual primordial sentiments. We cannot feign ignorance of its magnitude or ignore its consequences. Lives have been lost, and many more live in huge apprehension of losing their loved ones. We must take a clinical look at the issue at hand with a view to finding a lasting solution to it. The state must guard the vulnerability of the lives of the people and the security of properties of Nigerians, not just in Benue but nationwide.
Incidentally, the so-called Fulani herdsmen, who used to be harmless, affable and personable in their bucolic style, the type of lifestyle that would inspire idyllic epic, have suddenly lost the touch of humanity, and wreaking untold destruction on fellow humans. These days, some bad eggs amongst them have traded their harmless sticks for AK 47, arguably the deadliest weapon on the planet, and in place of their charming rusticity, we now have wild beings whose presence evoke dread and portray a personification of mindless terror that creeps in by night to unleash death on innocent people in their sleep. That this gory transformation is unveiling under the leadership of President Buhari gives it a twisted irony not helped by the president’s reticence and seemingly reluctance to act with alacrity and candour, especially with regards to having the perpetrators arrested and prosecuted.
However, while the government takes its precious time to sort the priority of their engagement of this issue, the men and women of Benue, and all affected regions must take up the task of doing best to device a defence line against the marauders. Human life must never be cheapened by political dribbles. Nigerians must by now accept that it is sadly not a safe bargain to leave the protection of their lives and properties in the hands of characteristically inept security outfits.
Self defence is a resort that has been successfully employed the world over and even in some areas in Nigeria with success. It cannot fail now, and so it must be an option fed with supervision to communities in not just Benue State but all areas in Nigeria whose natives live in the constant fear of threats to their lives or properties. The renewed so-called Fulani herdsmen killings across the country must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.
INEC recently registered 21 political parties bringing the total to 67. Many more are awaiting registration. Are all these parties necessary given that many of the old ones never won any seat in any election, why register new ones that would only be a drain on the nation?
As a nation, I believe we don’t need a million parties to effect desired change. A whole lot is wrong with us as a people, and I must say that these problems are as old as the country itself. We lack community. We lack unity of purpose. We lack fine political ideologies and culture. We live in a country that is so bereft of nationhood. The many political parties as you see them today are evidence of the fact that there is no community. It is the evidence of the fact that there is no national loyalty. No patriotism. Of the over 250 ethnic groups and linguistic variations that exist without Nigeria, each ethnic group wants to have its own political party; the same way each religious enclave wants to have its own political affiliation, each trade union wants to float a party to announce its own existence. Whereas ideologies are certain and cohesive, there is little or no emphasis on ideologies, no genuine communal pursuits, only individualistic and selfish interests. Worse still, some of the handlers of the many political parties are in the business for economic interests. Before you know what is happening at electioneering, you hear that this party has formed alliance with this party, or that this party has collapsed its arsenal into this party, or that leaders of one party have left their party for another one for economic interests and lack of vision, lack of ideologies, ack of political discipline and patriotic inclinations. We don’t need all the parties in the world. What we need are few political parties with patriotic zest and national interests that are built on worthy political ideologies. Many of these parties can be collapsed into one formidable alternative to form a viable opposition and unleash good changes on the national space. That’s when we can show seriousness of purposes.
How do we sanitise the political space?
There is the need for continued and sincere national orientation. There are dire needs for reorientation, disorientation, initiation and what have you. I believe that the quality of thoughts of a people, the quality of political culture, the mental quality of the preponderance of citizenry, the sincerity of leadership, the thoroughness of political education and political understanding among other factors will correct the sweeping inanities in this regard. If you look at the first and second republics in Nigeria, despite their shortcomings, prince of which are the lack of national loyalty, they were better off than what we presently call political associations, both in terms of deliveries and ideology. They did not only profess their ideologies, they practiced it. They reflect it in their party programmes and pursuits. Now the parties and the persons running them lack principles and fine goals. A nation cannot do well under this political climate.
Some Nigerians advocate for a third force saying both APC and PDP have failed. Is there any of these new parties that you see becoming that third force?
The problem to the third force option is the quality of Nigerian youths. For keen enthusiasts of global political happening in this century, it’s obvious that the youths world over are taking charge of the political space and working wonders in the various countries of the world. That is where Africa is still lagging behind. That is where Nigeria is yet on her knees. The Nigerian youths have been equally affected with the ill viruses of lack of patriotism and materialistic inclinations. Our value system seems to have been incrementally corroded and on the brink of outright erosion. If the country will ever work, it is up to her youths. We need to see the need for a third force as a probable alternative to the perennial mess into which the nation is plunged. We are not helpless. We can make it work with the sincerity of purpose and patriotism. But if a third force will be effectual, it’s up to Nigerian youths, particularly when the present government has challenged them, because in the highest executive body (Federal Executives Council) today in Nigeria, not a single Youth is in the membership whereas this is the council that discusses Nigeria development, Nigeria future, it is sad.
