BANJI Alabi, Convener of Ondo State Eminent Group, is a Constitutional Lawyer and a Fellow of Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria. In this interview, Alabi spoke on happennings in the country especially the arms contract scandal involving the former National Security Adviser, Col Sambo Dansuki.
What is your take on the accusation of disobedience of court orders and disregard for rule of law by the Federal Government?
As a lawyer and advocate of the rule of law, I believe that the rule of law must guide every governmental action in a democratic society. No governmental action or objective can be too grand or transcendent to justify a violation of rule of law. However, the real question is whether as a matter of fact and law, the Federal Government and her agencies have violated any law especially in the handling of the sensational cases of the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki and Nnamdi Kanu, the acclaimed leader of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB). Anyone who understands how the legal process works and who is not up to mischief understands that the allegation of disobedience of court order or illegal detention of the accused persons is baseless. In the case of Dasuki, he was granted bail to travel out of jurisdiction for medical treatment. Subsequently, he was arrested for another offence other than the one in respect of which the bail was granted. In law, this subsequent arrest is not unlawful. An accused person can be arrested for any other offence he has committed on a different charge. The granting of bail in respect of a particular charge does not give the accused person immunity from criminal prosecution and all its incidences in respect of any other offence. In Kanu’s case, he had been released on the ground that there was no longer a charge against him. Subsequently however, a fresh charge of treasonable felony was preferred against him and it was proper to arrest him on the new charge. It is important for us to get the facts right when we accuse the Federal Government of disobedience of court order.
Do you think the courts were right in granting bail in the criminal cases of Dasuki and Kanu?
The power to grant bail is an exercise of the discretion of the Court. When the Courts have acted based on materials submitted by parties and applicable principles of law, we assume they have acted judicially and judiciously. I have ethical limitation in commenting on the correctness of the decision. However, we will like to see a significant improvement in how cases bordering on national security and corruption are treated. To the public eye, there is probably no way we can explain why bail was granted to Dasuki to travel abroad for medical treatment. Are there no hospitals in Nigeria? How serious is the medical condition that it cannot be treated locally? What about flight risk? Is it easy for the government to navigate through all the diplomatic processes for extradition if Dasuki runs away? In fact, has anyone been extradited to Nigeria for criminal prosecution before and successfully tried by our courts? If this happens, will the judiciary in Nigeria not be accused of undermining the war against corruption?
Again, lawyers and courts have to show a higher standard of responsibility in matters of security, safety and the well -being of the Nigerian people. The safety of the people is the supreme law. The survival of our nation supersedes the personal convenience of few individuals. The public is watching the judiciary more keenly than ever. Judicial disposition must reflect the mood of the society so that judicial outcomes are not exposed to ridicule.
What the President is saying to whoever cares to listen is that this is a government of change, it is not business as usual and, when it comes to the safety, wellbeing and progress of this nation, no individual would be allowed to take undue advantage of rule of law to escape justice.
Since the advent of the civilian administration in 1999, there is a template for all the high profile corruption cases. The accused is invited, arraigned, the lawyer will promptly apply for bail, the bail is immediately granted and speedily perfected with the accused ordered to deposit his international passports, then the lawyers immediately bring an application for release of the deposited passport for medical trip abroad. And so many things happen abroad. This application can be made uncountable times. Upon being granted, an application is made to quash the charges. Then it drags on until the case is dead like dodo and then the accused is free to live thereafter in stupendous wealth and luxury. He will get numerous chieftaincy titles, occupy the front seats of his church or mosque. The template was adopted in the trial of James Ibori and others until nemesis caught up with him in UK to the shame and embarrassment of the Nigeria judiciary and the nation. This must stop!
This is not sustainable in a government that prides itself as a government of change. Our judicial process must be overhauled to conform to the reality of the moment. The people criticising PMB today are the cronies of corrupt politicians and they don’t wish Nigeria well.
What do you make of the N4.6 billion appropriated by the National Assembly to buy vehicles for themselves?
The economy of Nigeria is critically ill. There is hunger, deprivation, loss of jobs and unemployment statistics are on the rise. There is rampant poverty and hunger among the people. Most of the citizenry have lost their homes and dignities.Yet, in the midst of these hard and trying times, members of the National Assembly, with their access to our treasuries, continue to display affluence and unbridled profligacy in total contempt of the masses they profess to serve. I cannot fathom why a National Assembly, the assembly of the representatives of this hungry and hapless citizens can be discussing spending a dime on cars not to talk of N4.6 billion. It is more ridiculous that these people still get transportation allowance. Nigeria as a country cannot afford the profligacy of this set of people. Being in the National Assembly is not for money making. It is time Nigeria did away with this set of people and adopt part-time legislature so that only people with genuine interest will come forward to serve. Politicians are our enemies in Nigeria. In 2010, the then governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, said that the National Assembly spending constituted 25 per cent of the overhead of the Federal Government budget.
The Economist magazine revealed that Nigeria federal legislators, with a basic salary of $189,500.00 per annum (N30.6m), are the highest paid lawmakers in the world. It looked at the lawmakers’ basic salary as a ratio of the Gross Domestic Product per person across the world. According to the report, the basic salary (which excludes despicable allowances) of a Nigerian lawmaker is 116 times the country’s GDP per person of $1,600.00.
In another report, the 469 federal lawmakers (109 senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives) cost Nigeria over N76 billion on annual salaries, allowances and quarterly payments. Each member of the 54 standing Senate committee, receives a monthly impress of between N648 million and N972 million per year, while, a member of the HOR receives N100 million and senators receive N140 million as quarterly allowances; which means conservatively the 25 per cent of the overhead of the nation›s budget goes to the NASS.
In January of 2012, a presidential committee on public service reform discovered that top government officials in Nigeria take home N1.126 trillion a year in salaries and allowances –. These public officers constitute just 0.000000000013 per cent of Nigeria’s population. They include 108 senators who each make over $1.7m a year. Then the 360 members of the House of Representatives each takes home over $1.2 million, Again, each state governor collects an average of N200 million naira a month just as security vote. In a year, they each get N2.4 billion naira. So, our 36 governors take home N87 billion naira on security votes alone every year. Add our 38 ministers and ministers of state, 100 plus heads of federal and state agencies, over 432 state commissioners, 774 local government area chairmen or caretakers, almost 10,000 councillors and you will understand where the N1.126 trillion goes. This is part of the reason why 70 per cent of the nation’s budget is allocated to re-current expenditure. We are using a huge chunk of the nation’s resources to service just less than 1,000 people in a country of over 160 million people.
We are running the costliest democracy in the world. We can’t develop this way when we spend huge money to service a few people. How will you get money for productive activities to expand the economy? An average Nigerian cannot access good medical care, good roads and other basic things of life when the politicians are smiling to the bank: when the federal government is spending more than 80 per cent of the National budget on recurrent expenditure as a result of our greedy politicians. There is a potential for financial trouble and ruin for a state, when the largest part of it’s budget and revenue goes to the payment of salaries and compensations of government staff and personnel. With so little percentage of total revenue allocated and invested on economic and job generating projects and infrastructure such as roads, healthcare facilities, schools and so on, the future economic and social outlook of the state is bleak! These huge operating recurrent expenditures robbed PMB of revenues that could have been invested in laying the foundation of a good infrastructural network across the state, that would have become a catalyst for growth and flourishing economies for generations to come.
The appearance of President Mohammadu Buhari on the political scene at this time, presents that phenomenon in the lives of our people at a critical time in their existence and history. PMB like Deng Xiaoping, the father of modern China and Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, is an archetype of change from the status-quo.
Deng Xiaoping, the father of modern China, struggled mightily to convince the Chinese masses to abandon the unproductive, corrupt and failed economic policies of his boss and leader, Chairman Mao for years (as PMB is doing in Nigeria today) but, luckily for the Chinese after many years of persuasion, they bought into Deng’s vision, which resulted in one of the fastest economic turn-around the world has ever witnessed! Deng Xiaoping’s progressive policies resulted in raising the economic output and living standards of the Chinese, so much so that 300 million formerly poor, impoverished and illiterate Chinese, went to school, became educated and technologically savvy enough to form a formidable, informed, powerful and influential middle-class and backbone of the current Chinese economic miracle.
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