Mr Ike Ofuokwu is the Managing Partner at Ike Ofuokwu and Company, a corporate and commercial law firm. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Administration and a former adjunct law teacher at Chrisland University. In this interview with Deputy News Editor JOSEPH JIBUEZE, Ofuokwu speaks on secession agitations, the Senate’s rejection of electronic transmission of results, open-grazing ban and sundry national issues.
Southern governors met recently in Delta and Lagos states and demanded power shift to the South. Do you agree with the call?
For me, the solution to our problems does not lie in power shift or otherwise but on quality leadership devoid of ethnicity/religion and equal representation from every section of this country. So, whether power is in the South or North, what we crave are leaders and not rulers; the rule of law and not the rule of men; a just society where everyone is subject to the law and where there are no sacred cows.
What are your thoughts on the governors’ ban on open grazing?
Open grazing is an aberration. It is mundane, anachronistic, archaic and primitive. If the herders cannot ranch their cows, then I suggest they remain in their land where open grazing is allowed and make others buy it at a higher cost or even refuse to sell. It’s a private business like other private businesses. I particularly frown at the ugly narrative of farmer/herders clash. The farmers have not trespassed rather it’s the other way round. Therefore, these herders hooliganism must be properly addressed and condemned by every right-thinking person. States like Kano have agreed to accommodate them. So what else are they looking for?
Were you surprised by the rejection of Lauretta Onochie as a national commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission?
The nomination of Lauretta Onochie as INEC commissioner was an arrogant display of executive impunity and the height of political insensitivity. Therefore, rejecting her was tantamount to protecting the integrity and independence of the electoral body. Nevertheless, I’m troubled with the reasons adduced by the Senate for her rejection. It presupposes that at the expiration of Ms. Agbamuche Mbu’s tenure at INEC, Lauretta Onochie might be forwarded again for reconsideration. Nigerians have never had it this bad with this present rubber-stamp Senate. We have never had such a disastrously run, out-of-reality, inept and anti-people National Assembly where the majority are rascal, wasteful and indolent.
Are you disappointed with the Senate’s rejection of electronic transmission of results?
The rejection of electronic transmission of election results has further made the Senate clownish and laughable. How can the very same people who insist on JAMB, NIN, BVN, education and many others be electronic and online be afraid for electronic transmission of the election result? It’s all an attempt to whittle down and compromise the integrity of the elections. Contrary to the Act that established INEC, they have further made the independence of the electoral body subject to Nigerian Communications Commission and Senate’s approval, which in effect is subject to the executive that controls NCC. Most of these present crop of out-of-control rulers and not leaders are certain that they cannot win in any free and fair election, hence their strongest desire is to determine the outcome of the elections even before the elections.
The National Assembly also came under fire over the allocation of three per cent to host communities in the Petroleum Industry Bill? Do you think it should have been more?
Three per cent for host communities in the PIB is a gratuitous insult and a further attempt at dehumanising and impoverishing the host communities especially in the light of the 30 per cent allocated to exploration in the frontiers. This is in addition to all the gas flaring and degradation of the host communities’ homes and land. By the time we are done with this reckless, self-indulgent, and insensitive leadership of the current National Assembly who has ensconced itself from the harsh reality of the pains that they have inflicted on Nigerians, I’m afraid there would be no dignity and humanity left in us as a nation.
Are you worried about attacks on security agencies in parts of the South?
The attack on law enforcement agents and public institutions in the Southsouth and Southeast are crude and condemnable and no sane person would applaud it. No society can make any meaningful progress with the wanton destruction of its national edifice and public facilities. However, it’s also been alleged from some quarters that all these attacks are premeditated and a decoy to label these zones as restive and by so doing unleashing our security agents on them. That is to say, giving a dog a bad name to hang it. It is inconceivable that considering the security commands within and around the correctional centre in Owerri, such barbaric acts could be carried on for hours unchallenged. Even if we attribute these attacks to the prevailing injustices, they cannot in any way be justified. You don’t address injustice by destroying public properties and national edifice.
What are your thoughts on the security situation in the country?
The security situation in this country seems to have broken down irretrievably and there appears to be no hope to restore it. This is not restricted to any geo-political zone in particular but to the entire country. If the truth must be told, we have never had it this bad. No amount of state-sponsored propaganda can cover this inherent fundamental lapse in our security architecture.
Are you satisfied with the government’s efforts to address the problem?
There has been no meaningful effort whatsoever to tackle this situation from the President who ought to be the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Rather, what you find is apparent complicity on the part of agents of the state who should nip it in the bud. The governors on their own cannot even order the commissioners of police unless there’s an order from Abuja. Yet they are supposed to be their states chief security officer, a mere glorified title. Today, we have more policemen guarding politically exposed persons and the affluent in society than the ones protecting and guarding the entire citizenry.
There have been calls for secession to have Biafra and Yoruba nation. Is disintegration the answer?
The call for secession from various quarters is simply a product of great injustice in our nation such as has never been witnessed before in the history of this country. The Federal Government is running a sectional government favourable to a particular geo-political zone at the exclusion of all other zones. If we cannot accommodate the other zones due to this born-to-rule mentality by people who cannot even run a local government, then why not let the marginalised go? Why hold them together in this ill-conceived contraption? Must we continue in this unholy and parasitic alliance? The answer simply is No. A cursory look will reveal to you that our leaders over the years have been very inept at managing our multicultural and religious diversity due to their overbearing alliance to their ethnic and religious inclinations but we have never been as divided as we are as of today with this present government. An injustice to one section is an injustice to all except for those who are benefiting from it.
When you speak of injustice, what exactly do you mean?
What is the justice where we go after peaceful protesters, rights agitators who are unarmed with various ‘python dances’ and what have you and you find a state governor, a sheikh, the police, military and other security agencies dining, winning and taking pictures with fully-armed bandits clutching to their AK-47’s? And to justify this obvious insanity, you find a nerd and obtuse state governor drawing very strange distinctions between the evil of Boko Haram, herders and bandits in the North on the one part and that of unarmed protesters and harmless secessionist agitators on the other part. Honestly, I wonder who did this to us as a nation.
How do you react to the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu and the raid on Sunday Igboho’s home?
The arrest of Nnamdi Kanu just goes to portray how this government is desperate to silence every opposing voice. Otherwise, they should have acted in accordance with the rules of International Law in dealing with repatriation. The recent event was just a subtle repeat of the Umaru Dikko abduction saga, designed to ridicule Nigeria within the comity of nations.
The nocturnal raid, murder, wanton destruction and brutal vandalisation of Sunday Igboho’s home has become an ugly trademark of the Department of State Services (DSS). It is a primitive and lazy approach to modern espionage which must be condemned in a democratic setting. We saw this shameful conduct at play not too long ago at the home of judges and justices, the custodians of the temple of justice and to date, no one has called them to order.
Some have called for dialogue as a way out of the agitations. Do you think the government should heed this call?
To resolve these agitations, we must resort to dialogue, justice and fairness to ensure that no single part of this country is lording it over another. We must put an end to this bigotry and ethnicity that is fast tearing the country apart. With the glaring injustice at play, we cannot be able to make any meaningful development. A cursory visit to public offices will reveal to you demoralised public servants where mediocrity and ethnicity reign far and above merit. I’m, however, shocked and baffled as to why this government is reluctant to concede to dialogue or in the alternative address the perceived injustices. Every advanced and orderly society is founded on justice and fairness. Wherever you allow injustice to prevail, chaos is bound to be the order of the day as witnessed presently in our nation.
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) recently complained of non-lawyers encroaching on their work. How can this be tackled?
Non-lawyers encroaching on professional duties of legal practitioners is fast becoming endemic and this must be handled with very stiff measures and followed with stiffer penalties. The NBA must no longer treat them with kids gloves. Otherwise, the integrity of the profession will be endangered.
