Human rights lawyer and pro-democracy activist, Femi
Falana (SAN), speaks on the RevolutionNow protest, the growing
insecurity in the country, Ruga, ministerial nominees, corruption
war and the economy, among other burning national issues.
Excerpts:
The release of El-ZakZaky on bail together with his wife for
medical tourism in India has generated some ripples because of the
refusal of the government previously to free him. Are you
surprised? How do you feel about the whole saga?
I must say that I am happy about it all. I have stridently
fought for the release of this man and though this is coming at a
time when tempers had flared and so much blood spilled, I am happy
that at long last our demand has been met somehow. I must commend
the judge who granted the bail in the face of obvious difficulties
placed by government. The judge exhibited a rare courage, the kind
we need in this country. It shows that there is hope in the
judiciary. There have been widespread insinuations on the
emasculation of the judiciary by the government. This ruling has
shown that there is a silver lining in the system and it does give
hope of a better tomorrow.
But do you believe that the court order will be obeyed to the
letter? Don’t you think that the DSS will find a way around it
because of the weighty charges of treason hanging on his
neck?
They said they will obey the order; that they will allow the man
to go on his medicals in India. While we watch them, we believe
that they have no good cause to detain him further. It is a good
development.
Do you think it is a new dawn for the people of Nigeria
because the pervading belief in some quarters is that the present
government hardly obeys court orders?
It is not a new dawn per se. But it is a new dawn in the sense
that the agitations of the people, the expectations of the people
who have fought hard have compelled the government to sit up and
obey court order. That much can be said on this development. It is
a salient way of reminding government that there is power in the
voice of the masses. If only government can review its stance on
this as a future guide. No dictator can give you your right just on
a platter until you demand for it. So, the agitations, the media
reports, the protests here and there against the disobedience of
court orders by this present administration must have forced them
to obey this court order. So we say that the people have prevailed;
the wishes of the masses have come to be, and the masses have
definitely been vindicated. We salute the masses for their
commitment to the cause of justice, good governance and order.
You spoke about the courage of the judge. Do you not
subscribe fully to the notion that it is the courage of the judge
that compelled the government to take this action and not the
people?
Yes, it is the combination of the two. I also think that the
media reports and the agitations of the people must have given the
judge the impetus and courage to stand on the side of the people.
Left to the powers that be, they would not have allowed justice to
prevail. The judge stood for justice and we salute him.
The man and his wife have been left off the hook. Do you
suspect that they can be rearrested on their return from the
medicals in India?
They have not been let off in the manner you are suggesting.
They have been allowed to go for medical treatment under the
supervision of the State Security Services. So, they are not free.
They are not free at all. Government officials are on board to go
with them. They are not going out there completely free because
their trip will be supervised by the government.
Despite threats of arrest by government over the call for
RevolutionNow, people still trooped out in the streets on
Monday to protest. Is it that Nigerians are just waking up
now?
Nigerians are not just waking up now. The consciousness for
change has been there. But what happened was a good development.
Revolution? I do not think what happened was actually a revolution,
it was a protest. Revolution must always be accompanied with force.
It lacked all the ingredients of a revolution. What the masses did
was to do a peaceful protest. It was a peaceful protest and
demonstrations. It cannot in any form be interpreted as a
revolution. The freedom of expression of everyone in this country
is guaranteed by the constitution. So, what these people did was to
express their views as enshrined in the constitution. That was a
way of exercising their rights. It is amazing that some people in
government have taken it out of context in a bid to suppress and
muzzle dissent voices. It may have been tagged as a revolution, but
in concrete terms it was not a revolution, but a mere protest. You
can say it was improperly tagged.
But despite the fact that you view it as a peaceful protest,
government agents clamped down on the protesters and arrested
scores of them…
(Cuts in) The government itself made nonsense of the protest in
the way it handled it. Manhandling the people and framing them for
treasonable felony is the height of highhandedness over a
democratic expression. It is cruel and undeserving of a government
elected by the people and which prides itself on democratic
credentials. They triggered off the seeming violence. If they had
allowed the protest, everything would have been peaceful. I am sure
you are aware that the government raised a pro-Buhari protest
group, as well to also demonstrate simultaneously at the same time
the anti-Buhari protests were going on. It was the conflict between
these two groups that created the seeming violence. The pro-Buhari
group was aided by security agents and they turned it into a
violent protest. If you really want to look for who breached the
peace of this country that day, it was the government that did it
and should be held responsible.
The last four years have seen the re-emergence of political
detainees in this country. How do you see the democratic
credentials of the present government in power?
What we have is not a proper democracy. We only have democratic
structures. Democracy in the proper sense of it will not
accommodate the detention of opposition people. It will accommodate
dissent and protests. We need opposition so as to put government on
their toes. And that is what we are not getting. An atmosphere of
fear has been created. Criticism of the government is only
benevolently allowed. That is why we have different parties with
different manifestoes. The present government is trying to cow
people to submit to you, forgetting that you’re no longer a
military president or head of state as he was. I think Buhari has
not come to terms that he is now the president of a democratic
structure. This is where the problem lies. His supporters are
making it difficult for him to understand this because they hail
him no matter what he does and this encourages him to go deeper
into infamy. For them he does no wrong. That is why we are seeing
him act like a dictator. There is no accommodation for people based
on the expression of their views in a democracy. There is no fair
play in the application of the laws.
Let’s talk about insecurity. Apart from the observed
deficiencies in our democracy, Nigerians are also reeling under
wide scale insecurity. What do you think is responsible for
that?
The quality of the leaders that we have.
Kidnapping for ransom has really gained traction.
Insurrection as in the Boko Haram rebellion is raging.
Cultism and related crimes are on the upswing. Nigerians live on a
tip-toe stance. Do these matter to you?
These are the things that the masses are agitating against.
These are the things they want redressed by the government. These
are the issues the people want to be rescued from. But instead of
addressing the issues and seek solutions to them, the approach of
the government is to arrest the people and clamp them into
detention without bail in a democratic setting. It is either number
one or two on the list of things they are pressing for. It is very
embarrassing the way the government reacted to the protest. The
security agents have unduly become high-handed and ruthless and the
government is just sitting there helplessly. They swore to an oath
to protect lives and property in the country and so, what is
happening now is strange. It is strange to the people, the law and
the constitution. It, therefore, means that they have failed in
their duties.
If they have failed in their duties, what do you expect the
people to do? Should the people take the law into their hands on
the ever-increasing spate of insecurity in the country?
Unfortunately, what you have just said may be what we are going
to have. If people have expressed their fears, they have expressed
their dissatisfaction with the way things are going and are asking
the government to do something. Government is refusing to hear them
out and is responding in a manner that suggests that they want the
people to protect themselves. If the government is refusing to
protect the people, I am afraid that soon, people will begin to
look for ways to protect themselves. That is where the nation is
going.
One of the states in the Southeast in its response to the
insecurity issue is employing 1,700 forest guards. If this is
replicated in other states, will it give a measure of confidence in
combating kidnapping by herdsmen?
We wait and see how that will work. If it works out well,
then it won’t be bad for other states to adopt it. A strategy
that will rekindle hope in the people and solve the high level of
insecurity in the country is welcome. We noted that the state is
taking drastic step in combating the security problem. If other
states will take similar bold steps like that, the menace will be
reduced.
What is your comment on the RUGA scheme that is spearheaded
by the government for herdsmen?
Just like many people have expressed their views, RUGA cannot
work in Nigeria. If you say that you want to build RUGA in the
Southwest for cattle herders, are you also going to build a
settlement for farmers in the North? What I think we should have is
cattle ranch. If you have the ranches here and there, for instance,
we have ranches in the South, managed by us, the southerners. As a
farmer in the South, you can go to your farm without any fear of
molestation or attack or that your farm will be devastated by cows.
It should not be that you will bring Fulani people to a place like
Ondo State to take up their land, no. Individuals can even set up
ranches and ask others, including the herdsmen to manage the
ranches. The cattle can be brought from anywhere into the ranches
for rearing. The issue of acquiring land for herding should be
ruled out. I think that is what is fair, equitable and
workable.
Feelers have it that a huge sum of N2.8billion is already in
the 2019 Appropriation Bill for the building of RUGA across the
states. What do you say about that?
It is illegal. That is what we are hearing. Nigerians will rise
against it. As long as it is illegal, it will not be allowed to
stand.
But Nigerians have the fear that the current National
Assembly will pass it as it is largely regarded as rubber stamp
legislature. What is your view on that?
Nigerians won’t allow it to be passed into law. I am sure that
people will rise up against it.
Relatedly, there is this bill “Inland Waterways Bill,” which
was rejected by the 8th Senate. The bill empowers the Federal
Government to take over the river banks and adjoin lands from state
governments, which is suspected would be passed over to the Fulani
herders, what is your reaction to that?
I am sure it will also be rejected. A lot has been said about
it. I am in no doubt that it will also be rejected just as it
was rejected the last time. We already have a lot of noise in the
media against it. It will not sail through. That is the danger of
having a rubber stamp legislature. It is dangerous. The essence of
having a legislature is to have an arm of government that will act
as a check and balance on the executive arm. If you have a rubber
stamp legislature, that means, there will be nobody to put into
check the excesses of the executive. That is bad and dangerous for
democracy.
I would like you to look at the ministerial nominees that
have been passed by the Senate awaiting swearing-in. Do you think
it is a good cabinet of hope?
You know as I do know that most of those people are recycled.
They have been there before and we know their output. That means we
are going to have the same ideas, and the same style. That means
they will continue to do the same things that brought us nowhere.
That means there is not going to be any change. That much is clear.
There will be no change and that means we are not going forward at
all. We will continue to use the same people to do the same things
and expect change. There will be no improvement. There is
also no gender equality. Out of the 42 nominees, there are only six
women. It is also a negation of the Gender Equality Bill, which
prescribes at least 35 per cent for women on the cabinet.
Apart from that, it has been learnt that there are people who
have corruption issues that made the list. What have you to say on
that?
It is negation of the principle of corruption war being waged by
the government. It is a shame that the only credential the present
government is flying, dangling here and there like a carrot is the
corruption war, which has been destroyed by the people they are
putting in government. It is not helping their case. A lot of the
officials of Buhari’s government have been pinned down to be
corrupt and they are still in government.
With the low score you have given to the incoming ministers,
which means the economy of the country may not look up from where
it has been in the last four years?
It is very unfortunate. That is the fear of everybody and it is
very unfortunate.
So, how can this be overcome?
As I said earlier, there is power in the voice of the people.
The demonstration of the people is their right. Nigerians should
continue to speak out and express their dissatisfaction with the
situation of things in the country. Nobody gives you your right
unless you press for it, you ask for it. I want Nigerians to fight
for their right, demand for it relentlessly. That is how we can
effect change.
Culled from Sun
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