‘N’Assembly leadership bickering disgraceful’

Barrister Uwemedimo Nwoko, a human rights activist and immediate past Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Akwa Ibom State spoke with AYOYINKA JEGEDE in Uyo on the implication of the bickering at the National Assembly and areas President Buhari should focus on. Excerpts:

The bickering at the National Assembly
I describe it as very unfortunate and disgraceful. It is exhibition of conduct unbecoming of honorable legislators elected by the Nigerian people to represent them in the legislature. It is a manifestation of unpreparedness of the APC to provide leadership for Nigeria. I think that the APC as a political party is clearly, grossly unprepared for the leadership it has stolen. If they have prepared for it this show of shame and national embarrassment we are witnessing now which Nigerians are been subjected to would not have happened, and it is time, since by the constitution Nigeria is stocked with these groups of thugs who have stolen the peoples’ mandate to find themselves where they are, they need to deliberately, consciously work towards reforming and training themselves in the act of leadership which the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) has provided for Nigerians in the last sixteen years.
  
What we have in the National Assembly is a maturity process. The National Assembly had grown up to begin to manage its affairs and resisting the interference of self appointed godfathers who want to stay outside and now make legislations for Nigerians without holding elective offices. The implication on Nigeria is that all Nigerians must rise up to support the National Assembly in its efforts to accept the independence of national legislatures and take it away from the prowling eyes of an attempt of political hawks who want to engineer according to their own personal desires the affairs of this country through the legislatures.

The political buccaneers who are scavenging all over the places for powers which they don’t posses and which they are not entitled to, they need to leave the legislatures alone, they need to allow the National Assembly to operate without interference. The Nigerian democracy and our legislative process would do well and far better without these interferences.
 
Implications on legislative process
Legislators should maintain their stand and resist interferences and work with the best interest of Nigerian people and in Nigerian nation at heart. Nigeria cannot be hijacked by few persons who are used to lording it over others in their small political camps. APC should know that Nigeria is bigger than those small states and local government they used to control. They are now saddled with the responsibilities of leading the Nigerian nation, and not of leading Lagos, Osun or Ogun states; they are saddled with bigger responsibilities of carrying the image of Nigeria in the International community of nations.

For our legislators, they need to put their foot down and maintain their strength of characters to ensure that they bear and live up to the expectations of Nigerian people in the act of legislating and in the act of running their oversight functions for the country in the act of accepting the independent for the Nigerian Nations at all times and for all levels.
 
APC’s threat to challenge Saraki’s emergence
My advice to the APC leadership is that they should try to shake off the psychology and emotions of an opposition party. I know they have played opposition for so long that they are finding it difficult to become a ruling party in practice. It is time that the APC begin to talk like a ruling party. They need to talk like statesmen.

APC should begin respect the institutions of constitutions and the rules of the various legislative houses. If the legislatures went into the hallowed chambers both upper and the lower and they chose their leaders and the APC leaders who are not members of either of these Houses, and are not in any way in a position to determine the position of the rules of either the Senate or House of Representatives now want to challenge or say they reject the result, they have no legal standard to do so.

They are not looking at the interest of the nation beyond their own personal interest and narrowed political party interest. It is important that APC should begin to look at the national interest above their selfish and individual interest as a political party, more important if the APC say they want to go to court what will they challenge? What are they going to say? Were they members of the National Assembly? Were they entitled to vote? Where they entitled to sit in the House to determine the leadership of the National Assembly?
    
Whatever a man soweth, so he reaps just a couple of months back APC had said it does not matter which party leads or has the majority member in the House, they emphasized that the important thing is that the House has the power to choose its own leadership and that was how they got Tambawal to become the speaker of the Federal House of Representatives even when he had left the majority party on the platform of which  he was elected as the speaker of House of Representatives just too soon that principle and position they created  and canvassed for has cut up with them. APC does not have moral standing to start any cry foul in the situation.

The colour of Buhari’s cabinet
He should look for what is not available. Men and women of integrity, I don’t know where he is going to find them. What the president is looking for he will not find. He is going to have troubles with all those he is going to appoint because he will be looking for honest men and women, men of integrity who will not be corrupt and he will look round all over the country, he will not find because of the people that are working with him. Look at those surrounding him now and show me the man of integrity among them, he doesn’t have one. The situation is worst than that of Jonathan. We will see those he is appointing today as a man of integrity and then, we will also check their records of performances within the periods and let them declare their assets and create a database, let us be able to follow up. There should be no sacred cow; all of us should surrender ourselves to adequate and thorough investigation as to what we acquire before entering office and what we acquire as at the time of exit. A database is necessary.

Other areas of attention
Power after corruption which the president has the solution, a lot of things will fall in place if we have adequate power supply. Some people will not even need to look for government if there is sufficient public power supply but as it stands now, you are now your own country, all of us are running our own country t, he power you are providing for yourself.

Even security in most places, you are providing for yourself. There are very few states in the country where you don’t have to provide security for yourself. The education, most people are now relying on private schools which means you are providing education for your children, most places are now going to private hospitals which means you are now your own government to provide health care services for yourself.

The government needs to be a government that will work in the interest of the people so that we don’t run individual government in our own houses and lives because that is the problem we are facing. If the president wants to succeed, he must have the strength of character to fight established cabals. The president must have the strength of character to confront those who don’t want certain things to change in this country. There are people who feed on the blood of Nigerians and don’t care about whatever happened
  
For instance, the so-called subsidy programme is an unnecessary drain pipe on the economy of the country and it pumps money into the pocket of very few people. Why do we need subsidy? Why do we need to subside what we are eating? All we need to do is to deregulate the downstream sector.

Let there be competition just as it has happened in the telecommunication sector. The market would be high at the beginning but would stabilize along the line.

Why do we still sell our crude oil to foreign countries and buy back refined products into this country? We have four refineries, none is working.

Who are those setting fire to refineries in Nigeria? There are very simple things that need to be done but it needs the strength of characters to do it. Unfortunately, every government comes in and makes a whole lot of promises and we hear the stories, they come and go and nothing happens. I don’t want to prejudge the Buhari’s administration; I wish him the best because if it is well with the administration, it is well with the Nigeria. If they can change the attitude and stop paying lip services to these things and take practical steps to change the nation. I don’t think it is impossible to do this.