In this conclusion of the interview with Sunday
Oguntola, former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA),
Chief Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), sheds light on why the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will keep losing corruption
cases. Excerpts:
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been
accusing the judiciary of frustrating the anti-corruption war,
especially successful prosecution of looters. What’s lacking in the
agency’s effort?
The EFCC is just an agency. I did constitutional studies and
have studied over 50 anti-corruption models. Corruption is fought
well when the President leads it. When the late Murtala Muhammed
came to power and wanted to fight corruption, he went on TV and
told the people what he had stolen. So, he set an example and
inspired confidence from people. Then, he went to war.
But we don’t see that with this current administration. The
suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir
Lawal was accused of fiddling with the contract monies for North
east recovery programme. What happened to him? Nothing.
The monies recovered from Ikoyi flat, what’s happening? Nothing.
Immediately when there is selective application of anti-corruption
parameters, the whole thing goes to pieces. People will raise
dusts. You are accusing Diezani Alison-Madueke of looting but she
would raise pro-Diezani groups because she feels others are not
hounded like her.
So, the mistake is an absence of clear commitment on the part of
the President that anyone caught in corruption would be severely
dealt with. When that happens, it would empower EFCC to function
better. It would create the energy for the judiciary to add bite to
the war. That is what is missing. That critical, strategic
commitment of the President that he is fighting corruption,
wherever it is found.
In the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) conference, one of the
things that came out is that the Indian President is succeeding
with anti-corruption because he is fighting corruption even
in-house. He also uses the best hands as ministers. If he wants a
Minister of Mining, he would get the best brain in that field to
serve as Minister. In Singapore, virtually all the Ministers are
PhD holders. So corruption is not just about stealing money, it is
also nepotism. It is about putting only people from a particular
section in offices when there are better qualified ones from other
sections. You will now make them look inferior and unqualified.
So the President needs to rise to the level where he is
completely neutral and he takes no prisoners of corruption whether
it is from his family, party or hometown. If anyone makes a mistake
that goes against the rules, he cuts you down. But that is not the
case now. He may not know it. It may not be deliberate. But it is
not that now.
I don’t think it is deliberate because he makes the right noises
about Nigeria. Look at his last broadcast you could see he was bent
on enforcing the sovereignty of Nigeria. If he could do that with
the same determination across the board, Nigeria will change.
He won’t tolerate any incompetent ministers. How many of our
ministers are competent? That’s why Nigeria is what it is. When I
go abroad, my friends wonder what I mean I have to dig my own
borehole for water. They cannot understand the concept of
boreholes. I have ten generators for personal use and you want me
to pay tax. How will I?
In other countries, tax revenue accounts for over 50 percent.
But who will pay tax here when I provide my water, security, power
and everything? Everyday PHCN is damaging my electronics when there
is a surge. The other day I had to install a solar panel for
N1million to protect the gadgets. The next day, PHCN burnt the
surge regulator.
Going to Apapa is a war. We have to drive on gutters sometimes
to get there. Who will bring money and investments with the road in
that state?
The EFCC has been crying lawyers like you are helping looters to
escape prosecution…
…How
…The agency says the looters are getting injunctions with the
help of lawyers…
…But that’s the way it is. That is precisely the work of a
lawyer. What we should be asking is: how come the EFCC has poor
charges that lawyers are able to get injunctions against them? How
come the agency goes to the wrong courts many times for
prosecution?
They are the ones strengthening the lawyers and allowing them to
get injunctions because of poor prosecution. Lawyers are by ethics
expected to accept briefs from anybody. A person is entitled to be
fairly heard no matter the offence you commit. You must have a fair
court hearing before conviction. Therefore, you are bound to be
defended and the defence is based on the competences of the
lawyers-the prosecutors and defence counsels.
How can you have an anti-corruption strategy and you don’t have
lawyers and prosecutors? Rotimi Jacobs is busy going around the
country alone. How can he handle all the cases? I told Abubakar
Malami (The Minister of Justice), who is my friend, what you need
to do is to have top advocates to prosecute cases.
You can’t fight corruption with penny-penny lawyers. The looters
have stolen trillions and you think you will be paying lawyers
peanuts and they will beat us who are paid in millions? So, those
are part of the problems with the anti-corruption war.
The President has to make it clear this is his commitment with
the Attorney leading the war. EFCC needs resources to work well. I
hope you know they don’t have resources to work with. If you go to
their office in Ikoyi, you will be shocked with what they have. In
fairness to them, they are doing more than they are paid. They are
overworked, overburdened and overused. They don’t have forensics or
any skills. So, they prepare their cases terribly badly. In fact,
if you see a typical EFCC charge, you will almost weep. I don’t
know who gave them the idea that their charges must be in
hundreds.
You just need one or two charges to make it easy. You remember
people criticised a Federal High Court Judge for freeing Ibori. I
took pains to read the judgment and realised the Judge was right
because the allegation was by Nuhu Ribadu. He said there was a
$15million given by Ibori. The very man who alleged was not called
as a witness. So, how can the judge convict without the man who
alleged called? J.B. Daodu just made an application and the judge
threw away the case. But people don’t know all these.
When cases go wrong, they start shouting not knowing the cases
are badly framed, poorly investigated and badly prosecuted. That’s
why cases are thrown out and we shout lawyers and judges. I am not
saying judges are saints because we have seen many of them caught
in corruption issues.
But again the rule of laws dictates you don’t denigrate an
institution in order to win a battle. You don’t have to go in the
middle of the night to break into their residences. You know these
guys. You can arrest them or even invite them. They can’t run
because you know them well.
Going after them in that way splits the Bar like I am against it
and we now forget the issues to discuss how. The problem is the
EFCC thinks it is above the laws, which is not true. That is why
the anti-corruption war is not going well and needs to be
corrected. Fighting corruption is the simplest thing. It is not as
difficult as we are making it. Most of the guys have their hands
everywhere. It is easy to track them. The evidence is always there.
It is the framework that is lacking as well as motivation for
prosecuting lawyers. They are not even enlisting the support of
NBA. They believe they have Presidential mandate, which is above
the rule of laws.
That is very wrong because you are not fighting with the rule of
law yet you want the rule of law to assist you deal with looters.
It is not going to work. The judges will be against you. They have
their discretions to rule on your cases. You cannot force them to
convict any person. You must bring the accused before them and if
you have already antagonised the judges, how do you want to get
prosecutions?
They won’t be sympathetic to you because the judges also have
their challenges. I know Judges who have not been paid for months.
My sister-in-law is a Judge. She was not been paid from
January-June. She is a federal Judge. So, how can she survive?
It comes back to we must empower institutions. At a point I was
in the NJC, I made a point that the NJC is not an agency of the
executive. It should draw up and submit its budget to the National
Assembly. But the NJC has been very conservative and reactionary.
So, I went to court and I won. I asked them to implement the case I
won, they were not interested.
Rather, they are content with working without resources. Most of
them have no houses, some have no cars. I am talking about senior
federal Judges. They have got absolutely nothing. The conditions
under which they work are shockingly poor. Some of their offices
have nothing. They have illiterate, uneducated and unskilled
staff.
You know in most cases, judges slow down their works. They must
write their reports in three months. So, if you have a judge that
is fast and has delivered 60 cases, he or she is dead. They have to
write as much reports. They have no support unlike abroad where the
judges have like 10 researchers and backroom staff. After dealing
with a case, they discuss with the clerks and they give him the
reports. So his main work is to sit in court, take evidence. There
is a backroom support that you won’t see. Here, there is none. So,
when we talk about the judiciary being slow, we have to understand
why.
Many have no offices. Many have to wait for judges to deliver
judgments before going to sit. That’s the problem. All these go
back to building strong institutions. And this is something African
about our underdevelopment. There is no black nation that is
successfully run. Look at Jacob Zuma, he’s destroyed the country.
Look at Museveni (Uganda). He started very well but has stayed for
over 30 years. Look at Mugabe (Zimbabwe). He is over 90 but wants
to die in office. But look at the developed countries. Macron is
39, Theodore is 41. These are energetic people. Our President is
74. Look, once you cross 60, the energy is not there again.
I remember when I was young, I can drink my beer before going to
court. Now I cannot again except in the evenings. So, I know the
difference between being 40 and 64, not to talk of 74 and carry
Nigeria’s wahala on your head. You have to be strong to survive. We
need young people who can absorb pressure and thrive.
What’s happening to CLO, which you founded because these days
one is not hearing about it again?
CLO was created as a human rights organisation to fight for
prisoners’ right and all that. In the course of that, we found that
our missions required a democratic environment to thrive. So, we
expanded our mandate to enthronement of democracy, which we have
done. So, our mandate has expired.
Really?
Yes, it has expired. We were the opposition then with the
Military as ruling class. But now, we are neither APC nor PDP. We
cannot do anything again. That’s why I insist only leaders of the
ethnic nationalities can rescue this nation because the new game in
town is not the enthronement of democracy but fight for a new
Nigeria. It is the owners of Nigeria that can rescue us. Human
rights groups can only contribute their points.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote you last week…
No, I wrote to him and he only replied. That letter was because
of the frustration I feel within for Nigeria. I merely went back to
military strategy, that if you agree you are weak, look for an
alliance that can assist you. I realised that Obasanjo is a man
that can push any course he takes on. I wrote him to help us to
create a generational shift. He responded that while he agreed
generally, even the youths that have taken power… Anyway, we have
opened the conversations that he would give more thoughts. The
charge to him was to bring a young man that can take over.
But he said you have sat on the fence for too long…
… But where do I start from? I am a lawyer and my resources are
limited. I cannot mobilise even in my town. People like Chris Uba
with their billions can move everyone away from my presence. So,
where do I jump to from the fence? Into fire? So, I cannot do
anything. That’s why I appealed to him that since we are in a trap,
only someone like him that belongs to the ruling class can drop
down the ladder to raise us up. I can name five politicians that
can buy up the entire country.
So, where do you start from if you don’t have resources? How do
you fund a party? You know the late Gani Fawehinmi actually thought
he would win the presidential race. When he lost, he put mud on his
face. He was so distraught and I told him Nigerians love him but we
lacked the political organisation.
In 1998, the space was opened when we the civil societies were
invited to participate in the then emerging democracy. But in our
meeting in Gani’s house, my motion for participation was defeated
because they insisted we must have Sovereign National Government
and Government of National Unity.
I said those things were theoretical and we should enter the
space to make changes. I regret that decision would have changed
things today. By 2003 when we realised the error, the space had
been closed. If Gani had run in 1998, he would have won. It didn’t
require money at all then.
On the aircraft, they would not allow me pay for tickets.
Doctors treated me free because they said we were the ones who
fought for democracy. The national flavour was still there and
people were uncorrupted. That momentum would have taken us in. Even
former President Thambo Mbeki came to appeal to us but we shunned
him.
The older part of the Human Rights Movement led by the late
Senator Adesanya and co saw the opportunity and took it. They left
us behind while we continued to shout and make noise. In four
years, the space closed. That was what formed my appeal to
Obasanjo.
So, if a political party asks you to contest, you will take it
now?
Yes. That is part of the appeal to Obasanjo. I cannot on my own
offer myself for service because how do I start? It is not easy.
Nigeria’s situation is one of the worst in the world where the
exclusion is total and the excluded have no voice.
Instead of fighting their oppressors, they are fighting
themselves. The poverty level is horrendous. The level of
illiteracy in the north is terribly poor yet the almajiri worship
their political heroes who impoverish them in the first place. So,
the country needs to be rescued by a visionary person.
So, Nigeria is not beyond redemption?
It is a difficult question to answer because Nigeria is
touch-and-go. It can go down any moment. We are on the precipice
looking at all the indices. We are one of the most fragile states
in the world. We are top there. We are at the bottom of any
positive rating. All these can lead to a volcanic eruption
anytime.
So, we need a Messiah from the elites who is not
self-proclaimed. That, for me, is what we need now.
As the former President of NBA, why is it not as vibrant as it
used to be?
The political elite have penetrated everything and everyone.
There was a time the NBA, NMA, ASUU and others were strong but not
anymore. The politicians have infiltrated them because they don’t
work. All they do day and night is plotting how to have access to
power and treasury.
Some of them can stay six or seven years without power but when
they get it, they don’t stop. Take Diezani for example. What would
such a pretty, elegant, classy woman need so much money for? Why
would she steal that much?
That’s the problem. To sustain this politics, this means set up
deliberate rules that ensure their power is not threatened. Our
politicians can cross any party because the purpose of the party is
to have access to power. That is the only philosophy on which our
parties run.
Out of every N1 Nigeria makes, they steal as much as 90k. The
system has completely collapsed. The States are just there. The
governors just wait till the end of the month, send their
commissioners to bring cheques from Abuja and then start
distributing to people. That is all they do now. Our local
government chairmen only work from when they get their allocations
and distribute. After then, they become free. So, the entire
governmental system has collapsed. Local governments are gone.
States are gone. Only the federal government exists and is
overloaded.
Culled: Nation
In this conclusion of the interview with Sunday
Oguntola, former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA),
Chief Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), sheds light on why the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will keep losing corruption
cases. Excerpts:
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been
accusing the judiciary of frustrating the anti-corruption war,
especially successful prosecution of looters. What’s lacking in the
agency’s effort?
The EFCC is just an agency. I did constitutional studies and
have studied over 50 anti-corruption models. Corruption is fought
well when the President leads it. When the late Murtala Muhammed
came to power and wanted to fight corruption, he went on TV and
told the people what he had stolen. So, he set an example and
inspired confidence from people. Then, he went to war.
But we don’t see that with this current administration. The
suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir
Lawal was accused of fiddling with the contract monies for North
east recovery programme. What happened to him? Nothing.
The monies recovered from Ikoyi flat, what’s happening? Nothing.
Immediately when there is selective application of anti-corruption
parameters, the whole thing goes to pieces. People will raise
dusts. You are accusing Diezani Alison-Madueke of looting but she
would raise pro-Diezani groups because she feels others are not
hounded like her.
So, the mistake is an absence of clear commitment on the part of
the President that anyone caught in corruption would be severely
dealt with. When that happens, it would empower EFCC to function
better. It would create the energy for the judiciary to add bite to
the war. That is what is missing. That critical, strategic
commitment of the President that he is fighting corruption,
wherever it is found.
In the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) conference, one of the
things that came out is that the Indian President is succeeding
with anti-corruption because he is fighting corruption even
in-house. He also uses the best hands as ministers. If he wants a
Minister of Mining, he would get the best brain in that field to
serve as Minister. In Singapore, virtually all the Ministers are
PhD holders. So corruption is not just about stealing money, it is
also nepotism. It is about putting only people from a particular
section in offices when there are better qualified ones from other
sections. You will now make them look inferior and unqualified.
So the President needs to rise to the level where he is
completely neutral and he takes no prisoners of corruption whether
it is from his family, party or hometown. If anyone makes a mistake
that goes against the rules, he cuts you down. But that is not the
case now. He may not know it. It may not be deliberate. But it is
not that now.
I don’t think it is deliberate because he makes the right noises
about Nigeria. Look at his last broadcast you could see he was bent
on enforcing the sovereignty of Nigeria. If he could do that with
the same determination across the board, Nigeria will change.
He won’t tolerate any incompetent ministers. How many of our
ministers are competent? That’s why Nigeria is what it is. When I
go abroad, my friends wonder what I mean I have to dig my own
borehole for water. They cannot understand the concept of
boreholes. I have ten generators for personal use and you want me
to pay tax. How will I?
In other countries, tax revenue accounts for over 50 percent.
But who will pay tax here when I provide my water, security, power
and everything? Everyday PHCN is damaging my electronics when there
is a surge. The other day I had to install a solar panel for
N1million to protect the gadgets. The next day, PHCN burnt the
surge regulator.
Going to Apapa is a war. We have to drive on gutters sometimes
to get there. Who will bring money and investments with the road in
that state?
The EFCC has been crying lawyers like you are helping looters to
escape prosecution…
…How
…The agency says the looters are getting injunctions with the
help of lawyers…
…But that’s the way it is. That is precisely the work of a
lawyer. What we should be asking is: how come the EFCC has poor
charges that lawyers are able to get injunctions against them? How
come the agency goes to the wrong courts many times for
prosecution?
They are the ones strengthening the lawyers and allowing them to
get injunctions because of poor prosecution. Lawyers are by ethics
expected to accept briefs from anybody. A person is entitled to be
fairly heard no matter the offence you commit. You must have a fair
court hearing before conviction. Therefore, you are bound to be
defended and the defence is based on the competences of the
lawyers-the prosecutors and defence counsels.
How can you have an anti-corruption strategy and you don’t have
lawyers and prosecutors? Rotimi Jacobs is busy going around the
country alone. How can he handle all the cases? I told Abubakar
Malami (The Minister of Justice), who is my friend, what you need
to do is to have top advocates to prosecute cases.
You can’t fight corruption with penny-penny lawyers. The looters
have stolen trillions and you think you will be paying lawyers
peanuts and they will beat us who are paid in millions? So, those
are part of the problems with the anti-corruption war.
The President has to make it clear this is his commitment with
the Attorney leading the war. EFCC needs resources to work well. I
hope you know they don’t have resources to work with. If you go to
their office in Ikoyi, you will be shocked with what they have. In
fairness to them, they are doing more than they are paid. They are
overworked, overburdened and overused. They don’t have forensics or
any skills. So, they prepare their cases terribly badly. In fact,
if you see a typical EFCC charge, you will almost weep. I don’t
know who gave them the idea that their charges must be in
hundreds.
You just need one or two charges to make it easy. You remember
people criticised a Federal High Court Judge for freeing Ibori. I
took pains to read the judgment and realised the Judge was right
because the allegation was by Nuhu Ribadu. He said there was a
$15million given by Ibori. The very man who alleged was not called
as a witness. So, how can the judge convict without the man who
alleged called? J.B. Daodu just made an application and the judge
threw away the case. But people don’t know all these.
When cases go wrong, they start shouting not knowing the cases
are badly framed, poorly investigated and badly prosecuted. That’s
why cases are thrown out and we shout lawyers and judges. I am not
saying judges are saints because we have seen many of them caught
in corruption issues.
But again the rule of laws dictates you don’t denigrate an
institution in order to win a battle. You don’t have to go in the
middle of the night to break into their residences. You know these
guys. You can arrest them or even invite them. They can’t run
because you know them well.
Going after them in that way splits the Bar like I am against it
and we now forget the issues to discuss how. The problem is the
EFCC thinks it is above the laws, which is not true. That is why
the anti-corruption war is not going well and needs to be
corrected. Fighting corruption is the simplest thing. It is not as
difficult as we are making it. Most of the guys have their hands
everywhere. It is easy to track them. The evidence is always there.
It is the framework that is lacking as well as motivation for
prosecuting lawyers. They are not even enlisting the support of
NBA. They believe they have Presidential mandate, which is above
the rule of laws.
That is very wrong because you are not fighting with the rule of
law yet you want the rule of law to assist you deal with looters.
It is not going to work. The judges will be against you. They have
their discretions to rule on your cases. You cannot force them to
convict any person. You must bring the accused before them and if
you have already antagonised the judges, how do you want to get
prosecutions?
They won’t be sympathetic to you because the judges also have
their challenges. I know Judges who have not been paid for months.
My sister-in-law is a Judge. She was not been paid from
January-June. She is a federal Judge. So, how can she survive?
It comes back to we must empower institutions. At a point I was
in the NJC, I made a point that the NJC is not an agency of the
executive. It should draw up and submit its budget to the National
Assembly. But the NJC has been very conservative and reactionary.
So, I went to court and I won. I asked them to implement the case I
won, they were not interested.
Rather, they are content with working without resources. Most of
them have no houses, some have no cars. I am talking about senior
federal Judges. They have got absolutely nothing. The conditions
under which they work are shockingly poor. Some of their offices
have nothing. They have illiterate, uneducated and unskilled
staff.
You know in most cases, judges slow down their works. They must
write their reports in three months. So, if you have a judge that
is fast and has delivered 60 cases, he or she is dead. They have to
write as much reports. They have no support unlike abroad where the
judges have like 10 researchers and backroom staff. After dealing
with a case, they discuss with the clerks and they give him the
reports. So his main work is to sit in court, take evidence. There
is a backroom support that you won’t see. Here, there is none. So,
when we talk about the judiciary being slow, we have to understand
why.
Many have no offices. Many have to wait for judges to deliver
judgments before going to sit. That’s the problem. All these go
back to building strong institutions. And this is something African
about our underdevelopment. There is no black nation that is
successfully run. Look at Jacob Zuma, he’s destroyed the country.
Look at Museveni (Uganda). He started very well but has stayed for
over 30 years. Look at Mugabe (Zimbabwe). He is over 90 but wants
to die in office. But look at the developed countries. Macron is
39, Theodore is 41. These are energetic people. Our President is
74. Look, once you cross 60, the energy is not there again.
I remember when I was young, I can drink my beer before going to
court. Now I cannot again except in the evenings. So, I know the
difference between being 40 and 64, not to talk of 74 and carry
Nigeria’s wahala on your head. You have to be strong to survive. We
need young people who can absorb pressure and thrive.
What’s happening to CLO, which you founded because these days
one is not hearing about it again?
CLO was created as a human rights organisation to fight for
prisoners’ right and all that. In the course of that, we found that
our missions required a democratic environment to thrive. So, we
expanded our mandate to enthronement of democracy, which we have
done. So, our mandate has expired.
Really?
Yes, it has expired. We were the opposition then with the
Military as ruling class. But now, we are neither APC nor PDP. We
cannot do anything again. That’s why I insist only leaders of the
ethnic nationalities can rescue this nation because the new game in
town is not the enthronement of democracy but fight for a new
Nigeria. It is the owners of Nigeria that can rescue us. Human
rights groups can only contribute their points.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote you last week…
No, I wrote to him and he only replied. That letter was because
of the frustration I feel within for Nigeria. I merely went back to
military strategy, that if you agree you are weak, look for an
alliance that can assist you. I realised that Obasanjo is a man
that can push any course he takes on. I wrote him to help us to
create a generational shift. He responded that while he agreed
generally, even the youths that have taken power… Anyway, we have
opened the conversations that he would give more thoughts. The
charge to him was to bring a young man that can take over.
But he said you have sat on the fence for too long…
… But where do I start from? I am a lawyer and my resources are
limited. I cannot mobilise even in my town. People like Chris Uba
with their billions can move everyone away from my presence. So,
where do I jump to from the fence? Into fire? So, I cannot do
anything. That’s why I appealed to him that since we are in a trap,
only someone like him that belongs to the ruling class can drop
down the ladder to raise us up. I can name five politicians that
can buy up the entire country.
So, where do you start from if you don’t have resources? How do
you fund a party? You know the late Gani Fawehinmi actually thought
he would win the presidential race. When he lost, he put mud on his
face. He was so distraught and I told him Nigerians love him but we
lacked the political organisation.
In 1998, the space was opened when we the civil societies were
invited to participate in the then emerging democracy. But in our
meeting in Gani’s house, my motion for participation was defeated
because they insisted we must have Sovereign National Government
and Government of National Unity.
I said those things were theoretical and we should enter the
space to make changes. I regret that decision would have changed
things today. By 2003 when we realised the error, the space had
been closed. If Gani had run in 1998, he would have won. It didn’t
require money at all then.
On the aircraft, they would not allow me pay for tickets.
Doctors treated me free because they said we were the ones who
fought for democracy. The national flavour was still there and
people were uncorrupted. That momentum would have taken us in. Even
former President Thambo Mbeki came to appeal to us but we shunned
him.
The older part of the Human Rights Movement led by the late
Senator Adesanya and co saw the opportunity and took it. They left
us behind while we continued to shout and make noise. In four
years, the space closed. That was what formed my appeal to
Obasanjo.
So, if a political party asks you to contest, you will take it
now?
Yes. That is part of the appeal to Obasanjo. I cannot on my own
offer myself for service because how do I start? It is not easy.
Nigeria’s situation is one of the worst in the world where the
exclusion is total and the excluded have no voice.
Instead of fighting their oppressors, they are fighting
themselves. The poverty level is horrendous. The level of
illiteracy in the north is terribly poor yet the almajiri worship
their political heroes who impoverish them in the first place. So,
the country needs to be rescued by a visionary person.
So, Nigeria is not beyond redemption?
It is a difficult question to answer because Nigeria is
touch-and-go. It can go down any moment. We are on the precipice
looking at all the indices. We are one of the most fragile states
in the world. We are top there. We are at the bottom of any
positive rating. All these can lead to a volcanic eruption
anytime.
So, we need a Messiah from the elites who is not
self-proclaimed. That, for me, is what we need now.
As the former President of NBA, why is it not as vibrant as it
used to be?
The political elite have penetrated everything and everyone.
There was a time the NBA, NMA, ASUU and others were strong but not
anymore. The politicians have infiltrated them because they don’t
work. All they do day and night is plotting how to have access to
power and treasury.
Some of them can stay six or seven years without power but when
they get it, they don’t stop. Take Diezani for example. What would
such a pretty, elegant, classy woman need so much money for? Why
would she steal that much?
That’s the problem. To sustain this politics, this means set up
deliberate rules that ensure their power is not threatened. Our
politicians can cross any party because the purpose of the party is
to have access to power. That is the only philosophy on which our
parties run.
Out of every N1 Nigeria makes, they steal as much as 90k. The
system has completely collapsed. The States are just there. The
governors just wait till the end of the month, send their
commissioners to bring cheques from Abuja and then start
distributing to people. That is all they do now. Our local
government chairmen only work from when they get their allocations
and distribute. After then, they become free. So, the entire
governmental system has collapsed. Local governments are gone.
States are gone. Only the federal government exists and is
overloaded.
Culled: Nation
Read more https://nairalaw.com/why-looters-are-beating-efcc-hands-down-agbakoba-san/