Hon. Uchenna Okonkwo-Okom a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Anambra State and a former Chief Whip of the state House of Assembly. He was the Secretary if the Constitution Review Committee that reviewed the founding constitution of APC in 2014 and House of Representatives candidate of the party in Orumba North/South Federal Constituency of Anambra State in 2015 and 2019 general elections. In this interview with DICKSON OKAFOR, he stated that President Bola Tinubu’s presidency was the product of conspiracy by foreign powers in the 2023 Presidential election to protect their vested economic interests in the country which according to him has kept Nigeria down since independence.
The legal luminary charged the new Chief justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun to see her new appointment as opportunity to right the wrongs and challenge she must confront frontally in order to correct the current perception of Nigerian judiciary as a thoroughly corrupt institution.
Okonkwo faulted the vote of confidence passed on Tinubu by Nigeria’s former leaders after the Council of States and accused them of putting the nation in the situation we found ourselves today.
He threw his weight behind the call for a new Constitution by the Patriots. He also speaks on other issues.
Excerpts:
Recently, you narrowly escaped from been kidnapped on your way from Port Harcourt, Rivers State, is insecurity insurmountable in Nigeria with the huge amount government has spent so far in the fight against insurgency?
It was an ugly experience, but I thank God for saving me from the hands of kidnappers or gunmen. we were on our way from Port Harcourt and on getting to Uke-Nnobi road at Ideani Junction in Anambra State that evening, we came under gunfire by suspected kidnappers. I was in the car alone with my driver and I was seated in the front passenger’s seat. They started by attempting to block our car with theirs, but when we successfully maneuvered them, the opened fire on us and the door of the side where I sat was riddled with bullets. Yes, insecurity is a nightmare across the nation today. But it is surmountable if we tell ourselves the truth and give accurate inform to the military and other security agencies. Unfortunately, the more our security agencies fight to tame kidnappers, bandits and Boko Haram, the harder they come because of apparent lack of collaboration between security agencies and perhaps insider sabotage of government’s efforts to combat the menace.
What do you expect the new Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun to do in order to free the judiciary from suspicion of being corrupt and restore the confidence of Nigerians in the Apex Court?
That is a mandate she must confront frontally. That is a challenge she must fight without looking back. Justice as lawyers say, must not only be done, but it must manifestly see to be done. The current perception of Nigerian judiciary in the public space is lawful unacceptable. It has to change. Both as Chief justice of Nigeria and as the Chairman of NJC, she has a daunting task on her hand because the bulk at this time stops at her table. The perception that the judiciary is corrupt must change and quickly too. Our people say, “There is no smoke without fire” Whatever is the reason for that current poor public perception must be addressed and if it’s addressed properly, and satisfactorily, it will trickle down the line to the Court of Appeal, to High Courts both Federal and States, and even to the Magistrates’ Courts and indeed throughout the entire gamut of the justice delivery system in Nigeria. The judiciary shall regain its position as the last hope of the common man and as the bastion of justice. She cannot afford to fail because our judiciary is the one on trial at this point in our history.
The former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen has resumed his legal battle at the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal to set aside the judgement of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), that ordered his removal from office in 2019, do you see Onnoghen been reinstated especially now that Nigeria has a new CJN?
I don’t think that reinstatement is actually was actually the purpose of the move to resuscitate that legal action by Justice Onnoghen. The purpose is obviously to rectify Onnoghen’s public records for posterity. We know that the circumstances of his removal as CJN was enmeshed in a lot of irregularities and should not be allowed to stand as a precedent. No, the procedures used in that removing cannot be allowed as precedents. So, the current initiative is to be seen as an effort to delete that scandalous precedent. So, it is a step in the right direction. As far as I am concern and as perceived widely. That removal should be rectified as a way of repositioning the judiciary to restore public confidence in the system.
Recently, the Patriots led by the former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku called for a new constitution, but the Arewa Consultative Forum has tagged the call as a means for Igbo to actualize the creation of Biafra, what is your thoughts?
Every Nigerian inside his or her heart knows that Igbos don’t really want Biafra. Biafra pops up as a response to injustice, maltreatment, deprivation, marginalization and against suppression of the people from the South-East. Resort to the use of Biafra and allegation of secessionist agenda to blackmail Igbos in Nigeria is symptomatic of Nigeria’s situation of averseness to justice. Every Nigerian knows that any day justice in done in this country, Biafra agitation will die naturally. But it appears that some powerful groups in Nigeria have found perpetration of injustice against Ndigbo as tool to keep that very most resourceful segment of Nigeria away from the scheme of things in Nigeria.
They are apparently benefitting from the consequence of injustice. That is the way I see the use of Biafra as blackmail tool against a section of the country. That tool needs to remain potent. A lot of Nigerian leaders especially the leaders of my party, the APC, are behaving like people who had gone to war and won and so want to enjoy the bounties first. Before the vanquished is allowed a bite. So, to them, let the South-East remain out there in the cold until they are satisfied. Unfortunately, since economists tell that human wants are inexhaustible and insatiable, when will these Nigerian leaders be satisfied that they have had their fill? That will be in eternity. They want to hold Igbos down perpetually ostensibly of inferiority complex, insecurity and morbid taste for injustice. Therefore, the spirit of vindictiveness will not allow them free Nigeria and set it on the path of progress. Any day justice prevails in Nigeria, Nigeria will regain her pride of place in the international sphere and everybody knows it. But holding out the Measures tailored to pulling down the Igbos in Nigeria had put the country in a precarious situation where she makes one step forward and ten steps backwards. Take the 2023 general elections for instance, the reforms enacted by the National Assembly and signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, the Electoral Reforms that could have put an end to election rigging and irregularities in the electoral process were rubbished, rumbled and thrown into thrash can just to be sure that the people they don’t want are kept out. It has to take the destruction of everything a responsible judiciary is known for and every judicial precedent established in the well-known glorious history of our judiciary since independence for which Nigeria enjoyed international respects in order for our Courts to uphold the results pronounced by our electoral umpire in 2023. It was a disaster.
The Council of State recently gave Tinubu vote of confidence, what is your take?
First and foremost, I saw those who attended that meeting and I also those that joined them through visual as those who belong to the class of people who brought Nigeria to where we are today. I won’t be surprise by whatever statement that comes from them. Those are the type of people who should be championing the cause been advocated by the Patriots. They should be at the forefront pushing the Patriots’ agenda of a new Constitution for Nigeria having seen it all as former heads of state and presidents. In fact, I don’t know what is wrong with some of our so-called leaders. Mere seeing themselves seating at the high table in a prestigious events and being addressed and respected is all they want and nothing more matters to them as far as Nigeria is concerned. By their body language, it is like they are telling us that Nigeria is not worth dying for. General Yakubu Gowon at his age, even though I don’t expect much from him anymore. Is he still in the Nigeria project, “Nigeria Prays”? what is he praying for when he was in a position, even today to make a difference in a practical form, but he shies away from it. Even to speak up, what has he got to lose? Nigeria is the more you look, the less you see. The body of the former Heads of state and Presidents which is advisory don’t earn the respect they deserve from Nigerians. So, whether they passed vote of confidence or not for President Tinubu it does not matter to Nigerians because they have not lived up to expectations
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that leadership crisis is the major problem in Nigeria, but former President Ibrahim Babangida disagrees, who do agree with?
Obasanjo knows better than what he is saying because he is at his best ditching out precepts and pontifications which he does not represent. Obasanjo theorizes more than he practicalises. All that went wrong in the country including the rot in the government institutions all took roots during his time as President. He killed the local government autonomy in Nigeria just because he wanted to run and win second term election in 2003. He practically bribed the governors with the local government autonomy in 2002. He laid the foundation for so many things that went wrong and still going wrong in the country. But when you hear him talk, you will love him and you will think it is the way he behaves, but we know that he is not the way he talks. Former President Ibrahim Babangida, when he was at the helms of affairs, he did a lot of things that can be commended, but being the self-proclaimed “Evil genius” we know how he suddenly became a weakling by choice before his own subordinate Gen Sani Abacha and handed over Nigeria to him knowing inside his heart that Abacha had nothing new to bring to the table. IBB nullified a free and fair election won by Chief MKO Abiola and handed over to Shenokan deliberately, but craftily setting the stage for Sani Abacha to take his own predatory turn and round-tripping on Nigeria. Abacha was a leading member if the military junta between 1983 and 1993 during which period he made accumulated amount of ill -gotten wealth his successive generations cannot exhaust. Ten years after, what money had Abacha not made? Yet Abacha still looted without common sense between 1993 and 1998 until the Almighty God got fed up with his evil ways. So, till today, Babangida has never and can never condemn Abacha. Babangida knows the level and cause of insecurity in his state, Niger. They know that President Tinubu was a product of manipulative and exploitative foreign interests. And they know that the whole global political intrigues that is keeping Nigeria and other African countries down. But they won’t talk about it. Even former President Goodluck Jonathan was flop. He knew how he was pushed out of office in 2015. He knew those who did it were not working for Nigeria interests. He knew all the shenanigans that were employed by foreign powers to intimidate him out of office, yet you won’t hear him talk. He is satisfied with being allowed to travel the world as leader of Election Observer-Mission and being glorified by the West as a former African leader because he did not rock the boat of their vice-like grip on Nigeria
Don’t you think the nation’s electoral process need to be restructured to prevent electoral fraud in future elections?
Like I told you earlier, I have to commend Nigerians for tolerating the conspiracy of political leadership backed by vested foreign interest which is mostly against people from certain area in the country. The liberation Nigeria needs will help her to assume her rightful place in the comity of nations. The foreign predators that are holding the nation on the throat can never allow the caliber of people that will truncate their firm grip on Nigeria’s economy and polity to emerge as leaders in Nigeria, and they are using our over-ambitious but mediocre Nigerians made vulnerable and amenable to manipulation with baggage’s of unsavory records to checkmate the emergence of purposeful leadership for Nigeria.
There is speculation that the call in Southwest that Igbos must leave Lagos was because the people from South-East did not join the last nationwide protest against hunger and hardship, do you think the protest turned into Northern affair, do you agree with these assertion?
I don’t think that call by a few irresponsible, but sponsored elements from Southwest was the reason Igbos stayed away from that protest. Again, when you talk of southwest, let us be mindful of what we say because a lot of Yorubas are fantastic people. Certain Individuals with vested interests on Nigeria among them are working in particular ways to maintain their grip on the system. It is not appropriate to really categorise the entire Yoruba to the call for Igbo to leave Lagos. Do you know millions of Yorubas that feel bad by that call? So, don’t indict the entire Yoruba by that move. Few days ago, I met a highly placed Yoruba person in Lagos who was expressing her displeasure, her opposition to that call and illustrated the stupidity of that call with facts and figures. So, don’t say southwest asked Igbo to leave Lagos, because there are good people among them who have nothing against Igbos, and who in fact, hold Igbos in the highest esteem from Afenifere leadership to so many Southwest based organisations. Peter Obi won presidential election in Lagos in 2023 not because of Igbo votes alone. That is not possible. Talking about not joining the protest, actually the enemies of the Nigerian people have brought the Igbo where they want him. That is the situation the Igbo has found himself in, because if they join the protest, government would say they are sponsors of the protests and their shops and property will be destroyed. If they don’t join, the protest may not succeed and impunity will remain in charge. On why it turned into Northern affair, I wouldn’t say so even though there are strong reasons to suspect that. But instead of blaming the North I will blame the South for been insensitive of what is going on. The North is not alone in the hardship across the land. But in another sense, take a look at the areas in the North they are areas the protest was more active. They are the very states that are accused to have helped Tinubu emerge President by both fair and foul means. So, if this is their own way of expressing regret and trying to respond to their hurting conscience, I would not be the judge.
Why do you think the government is prosecuting some people who they tagged sponsors of the protest which they said was a plot to change government unconstitutionally?
My take is what I have being saying in this interview. Was President Tinubu not in the rank of the Patriots calling for restructuring of Nigeria all his political career before his adventure in APC?? Do we need to hold a protest in order for Tinubu to restructure Nigeria? It is unfortunate. Who desired to restructure Nigeria more than Tinubu? What is the agitation for Biafra all about? Was restructuring not what Tinubu called for all along? The NADECO movement, he was not only part of it, he was one of the leaders. Suddenly he became President and anybody who talks about structuring is a Biafra and wants to divide Nigeria. And those who know what is happening, instead of speaking out, will be chasing shadows. I tire for this country.
The National Assembly recently approved the purchase of a new presidential jet, isn’t that a sign that government is insensitive to the plight if Nigerians?
I said it and I’m still saying it, the purchase of that aircraft, the frustration of local refining of petroleum products, the rubbishing of our naira, the so-called removal of subsidy, the advance mortgage of our crude oil sales to foreign interests and even the imposition of Tinubu on Nigerians in 2023 are all part of Western conspiracy against Nigeria. Those decisions were not taken in any way to promote interest of the long suffering Nigerians. Did you see how America, from their Secretary of State down the line, including even the European Union’s sanctimonious election Observer-Mission swallowed their vomit and suddenly went deaf and dumb about the records in Chicago State University records or of drugs and sundry criminal allegations leveled against Tinubu including the results of election that failed all criteria for what is acceptable in a civilized society? Are you still confused where these are coming from? The purchase of the presidential jet could be part of the bargain because whatever the foreign powers wanted from Nigeria, President Tinubu is bound to give them. It is not about Nigeria’s interest, but foreign interest. It is hard to imagine why foreign interests preferred as Nigerian President, somebody with baggage who is vulnerable and who they can easily bring down if he fails play ball? That is the basis of what is going on the country. European Union came speaking long grammar on report about the election, but we see them now emphatically denying recognition to Venezuela’s, Nicholas Maduro as President without finesse of diplomatic embellishments because of the nature of the election conducted there. What is the difference between what happened in Venezuela with what happened in Nigeria in the 2023? America is talking about banning some top government officials for offences against democracy. Since the 2023 election who have they banned?
What would you say about the petroleum sector in Nigeria?
I have told you that what they are doing in the petroleum industry is not in the interest of Nigeria, but in the interests of foreign powers. Former President Muhammadu Buhari was the Minister of Petroleum for eight years, what positive impact did he make? It is international oil politics which makes America ever ready to go to war in the middle East and anywhere else in the world. But in Nigeria they don’t need to go to war, they won’t even fire a shot and their collaborators here will comply. For example, if our leaders are sincere, what have they said about Dangote refinery which held so much hope for long suffering people of Nigeria? They all know the problem, it is foreign interest that are holding Nigeria down, but they are all committed to it. they are now forcing Dangote to sell all his PMS to NNPC in a so-called deregulated industry, so they can implement the bidding of the foreign master and fulfill the condition for their emergence. Could you imagine why Nigeria, the 6th oil producing nation in the world is still importing finish product because none of her refineries are working. A private enterprise, Dangote, built a refinery to solve the problem and nobody is excited about it. Rather, they are engaging Dangote like one who has committed an offence.
What is your view about the newly established South-East Development Commission?
I am not excited about the creation of the South-East Development Commission because it is a mere rhetoric’s. Every region now has a development commission. What impact have they made in the development of those regions? Is the money for the Development Commissions not coming from the same Federation Account with the same existing revenue allocation formula? There is a parable in Igbo “If your father is eating a corn, the sign that he will not share it with you is when he starts eating it from the tail” because that is the part he will give to you if he intended to. Looking at Tinubu and other Nigerian successive leaders, do you see them as people who are interested in lifting the South-East? If Gowon’s post- civil war three Rscould so woefully fail without anybody batting an eyelid, why the euphoria about bthe so-called South-East Development Commission.
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