A controversy has been raging since President Muhammadu Buhari traveled abroad for medical treatment and handed over power to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. In this interview with our Correspondent, Christiana Okpala, former President of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CWLA), Boma Ozobia (OON), speaks on sundry issues and insists while Nigerians have the right to know what’s wrong with their president, Mr. Buhari is also entitled to his privacy as a citizen.
NE: How do you assess the present state of the nation and which way forward?
It’s a good time to look at the current administration from the perspective of a citizen because I’m a lawyer and a citizen of Nigeria. The policies and actions of government impact on me as it does any other Nigerian and to that extent, one is interested in what they are doing, how they are doing it, and how, perhaps they can do it better and, of course, this is the half way mark. Come 2019, we are going to go to the poll again to decide whether we to vote for them to come back or vote for another change. Looking at the promises they made to us and the ongoing fight against corruption, I don’t think it would be fair to attempt to evaluate the success of that fight at this stage. But to an extent, they have brought it to the floor and people are saying well, you can’t just get away with corrupt practices with impunity. I think that is a good thing. It is not just a campaign. We must see the result and the result will take time. We are going to court, there are processes in court. Some of the judgments are coming in. The EFCC regularly publishes its convictions and they appear to be achieving some measure of success, but not so much in the high-profile ones. I think there’s a lot of work to be done to ensure they do not co-opt cases that are not ready so they can achieve the conviction when they eventually go to court. One thing is to suspect and arrest, it is quite another to go to the court and prove your case beyond reasonable doubt. I think they need to do more work on that aspect.
There is wonderful news coming in. Our Nigerian rice is now the choice for many Nigerians. Two, three years ago, that was not the case. I think it is a major success on the part of the government. The government has been supporting farmers. Certainly, I’m seeing the fruit in my house. I only eat Nigerian rice. When I started, people were saying local rice? It has sand, etc. Now, everyone I speak to is eating local rice and they are understanding the benefits. It is fresh, it has all the nutrients, unlike the imported rice which are in the silos for 20-30 years. Dead rice I call it. Now, we have begun to appreciate our own and this has happened in the past few years and we are creating jobs for ourselves. By the time we are farming and feeding ourselves, there will be less demand on foreign exchange and we will be creating jobs for ourselves.
Now, talking of foreign exchange, that is where they could have done far better. I think we have suffered lately because our policies and management of that aspect of our economy has been below par. You see naira going from one exchange rate to the other and back again and you don’t see what is causing the wide fluctuations. Perhaps, we could have managed things better. Of course, at the moment, we have an acting president, the question is, do we have a right to know where the president is, when he is coming back, what are his health issues, and all these things? We have a right to some information in the sense that the president is a public figure. He equally has the right to sound silence in the sense that as a public figure he has a right to some privacy and family life. So, there must be a balance. Our freedom of Information Act, I think is one of the most modern and well-thought out law in any jurisdiction. It draws back time balance in telling us what we are entitled to know from our public officers and public institutions and what is not there you can treat as being private information. For instance, the president is traveling out of the country, there is constitutional time frame within which he’s out of a country for longer than that, he should transmit a letter to the National Assembly and the vice president begins to act. The vice president should always act in his stead naturally because that is why he is his deputy. Having transmitted the letter, he’s done what he owes us, beyond that, he has a right to his privacy. That is the fact, because there is no lacuna and government is running. Until such a time that he comes back and says, ‘I’m back to work,’ for me, that is not my concern. My concern now is Nigeria. Mr. Acting President, are you able to get on with the job? There are no constitutional impediments to your ability to get on with the job. He travels out of the country as he did recently, what happened? If there’s a vacuum in the executive, the legislative arm can set in. Talking about the state of the nation I think those are my comments.
NE: How would you assess the performance of the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo?
Government is continuous. These things that are coming to fruition are things that did not start in a day. It is not as though the acting president will start new projects. No, because they were elected together. They made us promises together, they had one manifesto, they are a team and so whatever he’s doing is what he and Buhari committed to. And it is the work they have been doing from day one for the past two years. To me, there’s no difference. The only thing that has changed is one individual is out for health reasons and the other individual who has been his deputy is acting. If they were not aligned they would not have been a team, they would not have been working together from the start, they would not have campaigned together. The acting president would have had a different manifesto. But that was not the case. It is clear to me that all they are doing and what they continue to do is to deliver on the promises they made to us. There’s something else a lot of people don’t know. It is that in his portfolio as the vice president, he oversees the economic team so to speak and, therefore, he was not sitting there as the president’s deputy doing nothing.
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NE: What are your views on 2017 budget?
I’m sad that the 2017 budget is taking too long. If you really mean well for this country, everybody should work to ensure that the budget is carried out and implemented from the beginning of the year. l run a law practice and the law practice is a business. I consider my law practice an SME. I can’t start the year without a budget. Similarly, for a country, it is unacceptable and it’s unfair on Nigerians and whilst we are looking at our executive arm, we should also be looking at the legislative arm. These people have been elected as our representatives. Who represents me as a member of House of Representatives or as a Senator and what is he doing there? Does he or she truly represent my interest, what bill, what questions did he add, what role has he played, and if am unhappy with what he’s doing there I have a right to recall him. But we are not focusing on the individual members of the House of Representatives, or the individual senators who have gone to Abuja in our names and asking them questions. Hold each one to account for his or her record in the House of Representative or in the Senate. Some of the things you see, you wonder, are they representing the people? That is the question and likewise at state level. If federal is too far from you, state is not. The same goes to local government. Local government is the most important tier of the government to the individual citizen. My primary school where my child goes why have they not got money for capital development, put borehole, generator and additional classrooms? Why are teachers not paid? That’s what the Freedom of Information Act gives us. Don’t only think it is just a journalist thing, it’s a citizen’s Act. Use it and hold them to account at local government level. Ask what did you do with the money? We know how much was allocated to you, how did you spend it? That is the question I have the right to ask and you must answer me.
NE: Judges and lawyers are being accused for slowing down the anti-corruption battle, what do you think about that?
You see, anybody who is accusing judges of slowing down the anti-corruption war is not knowledgeable about the processes and the way the court works. The court is neutral and, therefore, the judge is neutral. There is a court list, if it is Lagos and there are18 to 30 cases on that list, they will call the case. Are the parties present? If parties are absent, is there counsel for the claimant? Yes, counsel for the defendant? No. The judge is an arbiter. Do we go ahead, or don’t we? In order for justice to be done I will give you time, let us see if the other lawyers will come next time, the case is adjourned. These are some of the things that cause the delay. I have this paper, I need this, my evidence is still incomplete. Then the matter is adjourned and the impression is given that the judge or the court is delaying. The court cannot adjourn on its own, except there is something, maybe ceremonial or whatever that means that date is vacated. Really, what tends to happen is that people are not ready before they go to court, they file and they are still gathering evidence. That does not help matters. What should be happening here and I have been advocating it, is that the lawyers who represent these individuals and who come to court and cause interminable delays should be penalized. If I come to the court and ask for adjournment that I’m not ready, I see it that as unreasonable. I’m the professional, you can’t blame my client who is paying me as a professional. It is like going to a doctor, you are going to rely on a doctor, by the time you make me pay cost for that day, the next time I will be careful not to slow things down and or delay the court.
NE: Do you think that women are well represented in this present administration?
None of the administrations has done well. In the course of our democracy, none of the administrations has given women their due. You can talk about elective positions where we contest, those positions the women are naturally disadvantaged because of the cultural norms, the fact that political meetings tend to happen late at night and its capital intensive to run for these elective positions. You can’t blame any administration that women are not coming out to run for any election. But you can certainly blame the executive that is appointing, you appoint 30 Ministers you cannot find 15 women. We are 50 percent of the population of this country. There are many competent women and there are competent men. Look at the newly elected President of France, Macron, he made sure its 50/50. We are coming out of the university same as the men are. Women are achieving in all fields so you cannot tell me you cannot find a competent woman to appoint to any position in the country. From the Obasanjo regime to the Jonathan regime to the Buhari regime, they have all< failed women and they could have done better.