In Civilised Countries, Justice Oyewole Would Have Been Thrown Out Of The Judiciary –Bode George Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, has restated the resolve of his party to control the government in Lagos State after the 2015 general elections. In this interview with Assistant Politics Editor, Celestine Okafor, in Abuja, George, who was a delegate in the just-concluded National Conference, also advises the Federal Government on how to handle the report of the confab President Goodluck Jonathan has said that the report of the National Conference would be sent to both the National Assembly and the Council of States for deliberation, since the enabling legal instrument to subject the report to a referendum, which seems to be the popular clamour, has not been enshrined in the existing Constitution. Are you comfortable with that? l said to a lot of our fellow delegates during the confab plenary session, when they were talking about referendum, that it may not be possible since the National Assembly was adequately represented at the National Conference. I told the former parliamentarians to ensure that the enabling law to enable us have a referendum is passed as quickly as possible. The whole thing is like the chicken and the egg, which comes first? We cannot avoid sending that conference report to the lawmakers. They are currently the elected representatives of the Nigerian people. When you go for a referendum, it is usually a yes or no answer. The question is: which part of the report would we subject to a referendum? Some people may accept certain provisions of the report; some may also disagree with it. So the concept of a referendum is a bit woolly to me. The conference delegates were a reflection of all the strata of the society. No biases. Everybody argued their positions. Therefore, they should not shy away from following the people. They say, vox populi, vox dei! Anything other than that, they will be conflagrating this country. Even the issue of zoning had been brought in. The South-East has been brought to parity in terms of the number of states it should have. All these issues, like the local governments being brought under the states, the issue of state police and the contentious issue of derivation, have all been discussed. The confab delegates said they needed more information because these are the most contentious areas that have plagued Nigeria. At the onset of the conference, there was some intervention by elders like you, when it was difficult to reach a consensus on voting pattern. To what extent did this intervention help to ensure the success of the confab? We had to intervene and, many times, it helped to restore order. You see, having worked in the military for over 30 years as an officer, l have made friends all over this country. Then coming into politics, l became not only the national vice chairman of the South-West PDP; l was deputy national chairman (South) of the PDP. I was also deputy national chairman of the party for the whole country. I had run the national campaign of the party as the director-general for the country. I have made peace at different levels in this country. I have seen the differences in culture, the norm and style of doing things. There is goodness in every zone. And that is what we need to tap into. All we are saying is that people should respect the culture and tradition of the different zones and regions of this country. But when we come into a national gathering like the National Conference, there is a minimum standard of behaviour expected of every one of us. There are also behaviors that fall short of common standard and which are generally not acceptable. That is what this conference has helped to establish. We had to strenuously convince those delegates among us who were irredentists on all sides of the divide, that the time for that is over. If we work together, there is so much in this nation that we can live on. Somehow, we were able to calm those frayed nerves. And l must commend the chairman of the conference, Justice Idris Kutigi. He is an unusual elder statesman. For a jurist to have so much temerity, peace of the mind and the calmness to tolerate all the darts thrown at him by angry delegates, it is simply God-given. Even when people threw tantrums at him, he came out laughing. And he would jocularly say that it could only happen in Nigeria. It has become the norm now in popular saying that “It is only in Nigeria.” I am very hopeful and pleased that at the end of the whole exercise, temperatures came down and everything ended on a good note. In a situation like we had at the conference, there must be certain voices that would say Hausa-Fulani gadan gada (calm down). After all, it is our country. That sense of hope, that no matter where you come from, we are in Nigeria and the time for nation building is now, and we have started that process. Only justice, equity and fair play will help the country. You sent a memorandum to the conference on the contentious issue of derivation, calling for calm and understanding. However, the issue of was suspended in the final report at the end of that exercise. How can derivation be revisited and resolved? You see, the South-South delegates were hell-bent on having an extra five percent of derivation. And I remember that they had put ballot papers and ballot boxes and that was the last hurdle. I called it the last hurdle in that memo. I appealed for calm. But to the elders, that would have scuttled everything that we had achieved so far. And l also remember going to Papa Edwin Clark to remind him that the 2015 election would be decided there at the floor of the conference. I also went to Chief Albert Horsfall to advice him that we should tarry a while. Let us not force an election, a voting on this singular item of derivation. And I asked them whether the outcome of the voting could be translated to law the next day? That was my question. How many oil producing states have we in the country? Maybe about six out of 30 states. I told them that an increase of five percent to the oil-producing states would be a decrease of five percent for the non-oil-producing states, which are thirty in number. So if you vote, you do not need to know simple mathematics for you to know that the idea was dead on arrival. And l thank God that that sense of oneness and understanding came to being. They needed more information and experts to explain the details of the decision that we were about to jump at. The conference chairman was critical when he proposed the idea of getting back to Mr. President to get experts to look into the issue and come up with a solution. Let the Presidency handle it. And when he put it to vote, it was unanimously agreed upon by delegates. Some states came up with their allocation under 13 percent and they had done another statistical data on what they would be getting if it increases to 18 percent. They know that they will never recover from such sudden revenue decrease, so why would they vote on that? So more information, explanation, consultation and understanding was needed. Everybody then accepted this option, which was a high note to end the conference on. Otherwise, all decisions would have come to nothing. So l congratulate the conference chairman and all the delegates who came to that reasoning. The South-South delegates also saw the sense in it. The protagonists all saw the sense in it. But at least, we ended on a good note. Looking at Lagos politics, people have alleged that former Lagos State governor and leader of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is acquiring most of the assets in Lagos. Even the Lekki project was said to have been conceived as a toll-free project. It is also said that the Oriental Hotel Complex at the foot of the Lekki project, allegedly owned by Tinubu, was strategically designed by the APC leader as a one-stop point to draw all hotel lodgers that have anything to do on that route and its environs, which is seen as big business on its own. What is your take on that? You see, l have been talking about this thing for a long time, that Bola Tinubu has to be a bit careful. Acquisition of public assets is a very dangerous enterprise. How much can one individual have? People will demand one day for an explanation from Tinubu. Is he ready to honestly explain to the people? I was also a governor, even a military governor that didn’t have any legislative arm of government to question or query my actions in the first place. There is an urgent need for Tinubu to have a deep reflection. We are all passing through this life. When you have so much, the trust of the people is lost. In the minds of millions of Lagosians, we are pondering why and for what did this man appropriate all our patrimony to himself. How much can you have? Can he own those things in perpetuity? He certainly cannot! I want to use this medium to appeal to Tinubu to return immediately some of the assets he had acquired. Let him even donate it back to Lagos State. It is their property. Let him even sell those assets and set up a solid endowment foundation to support the education of the under privileged. Tinubu should sell, maybe, about three quarters of those assets and give it to the people. If he doesn’t do it voluntarily, someday, the power of the people will do it and the people will take what belongs to them. And it will be more humiliating. So my advice to Tinubu is to immediately go for restitution and return the public wealth of all Lagosians that he has appropriated to himself. He doesn’t need such crude acquisition at his age. Let him sell the assets or convert it to public assets. And then go before the Almighty God and seek atonement and tell God that the assets were a donation from him. If he sets up a foundation, that foundation will manage it. He should use it to give scholarships to the poor people of Lagos and, that way, he will lift them up from the doldrums. That way, God Almighty might bless him. Those are the assets of the people. If Tinubu doesn’t return it to them quietly now that he still has the time to do so, circumstances will surely compel him to return it. Let him voluntarily turn everything in and get the heavy load off his neck and return his life back to normalcy. Governor Babatunde Fashola has lamented about the large population of Lagos, saying that it constitutes a serious infrastructural strain on the state. But some other people believe that it is the population that is the backbone of the high economic strength of the state. How do you look at these two positions and how can a PDP-controlled government in Lagos leverage on this oversized population if it gets to power? How can the APC government say that the Lagos population is a strain? They collect revenue from them to make up for their monthly allocations. What is the essence of the revenue collection? Is it not to make sure that life is better for the people? It is their responsibility to provide cost-effective transportation system to the people of Lagos; cheap and low housing schemes for the people; easy access to good healthcare programmes. Those are basic things for which a government anywhere in the world exists. Any responsible and responsive government must give all these to its people. There are 6.5 million registered voters in Lagos. The state is bursting at its seams. It is because Lagos is a commercial nerve centre of this country that people are flocking in. It is the melting point of Nigeria. There is no nationality or tribe that does not live in Lagos. Now the population of the state has grown to such a level that you can hardly know where the boundary between it and Ogun State stops. And the Ogun State government is also benefitting from this population by locating some industries in Lagos, thereby undercutting us on taxation. The PDP government in Lagos will make sure that our government will allay their fears in terms of transportation, education, in the area of decent and affordable accommodation and healthcare. We will bring a new face to Lagos. It is very possible. Late Commodore Gbolahan Mudashiru did a lot for Lagos and not with the kind of money the Lagos State government is receiving now from the federation account. There are bonafide Lagosians that are experienced, committed and with a solid background who would give service to the people of Lagos, not people who will go there to serve themselves. We have so many politrickians all over the place as against the true politicians. That is why there is no service to the people. And that is why the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must ensure that the vote of the people of this country counts and not the manipulations by some politicians and their cohorts. If people know that what and who they voted is what INEC declared, then there will be peace. Some APC stalwarts and their supporters have said that the only way PDP can assume power in Lagos is unless it forcefully takes over Lagos through election rigging. Do you agree with them, and what manner of force will the PDP adopt? That is absolute nonsense! There is no perpetuity even in life. Those people who are saying that must be living in the dark. What kind of forceful takeover of Lagos are they talking about? The people of Lagos State will demand their power back. No responsible politician who has the interest of the people at heart says such things. We (PDP) have been at the national level of politics in this country. We in PDP will ensure that the votes count in the 2015 elections, particularly in Lagos State. We will ensure that the votes will be announced as the electoral commission is counting them. There will be no Justice Salami (former president of the Court of Appeal) to manipulate anything in Lagos or elsewhere in favour of the APC. The people are ready for such politicians. They better be prepared. Lagos will never be taken by force. The state is not destined to be in the hands of one man. The people of Lagos have tested them for 16 years and there is nothing much to show for it. Even the Berlin Wall in the old Germany collapsed and you saw everybody jumping on it. There is always a day of reckoning. Let them not fool themselves. That statement and such crazy thinking can only come from fools. They are not God! Such thinking pattern is complete idiocy! In the bid of the PDP to replace the APC government in Lagos State in 2015, there are many doubts, based on the internal squabbles and divisions within the Lagos PDP. Some party members are of the opinion that, unless the PDP picks somebody like Jimi Agbaje, who has little or no political baggage, as its flag-bearer, instead of Ade Dosunmu, the party may lose Lagos again. Do you subscribe to this thinking? When some Nigerians talk about this so called disagreement in PDP, l just marvel at it. What disagreement are they talking about? There is absolutely no disagreement or division in the Lagos PDP. The problem is that there was somebody from outside the state who was manipulating some misguided people in the party to give the wrong impression that there was a misunderstanding among us. These were people who came from these same politrickians to join the party. We accepted them fully into our political fold. They did not know that the PDP has a culture. In PDP, we do not impose people, no matter what you are called, a leader or whatever. People will go through the mill. They will sell themselves to the people. There will be primaries and there will be elections. The people will choose who will lead them in 2015. That is the culture of the PDP. Unfortunately, in the past, some people manipulated people and things from outside the state by taking independent decisions that did not go down well with the party because they had the executive fiat at some point to do that. Thank God the incumbent President would not do that. We are getting to the real tenets of democracy. And talking about people who have bags and baggage, let the people see the baggage. And if they decide that they want the baggage man, it is their decision and not that of Bode George. The last time, we did our primaries openly. There has never been any time the Lagos PDP did primaries in the sitting room of Bode George. There is no emperor in our party. So all jokers can say whatever they like. At the appropriate time, we will sit as party elders and the managers of the party will do their job and somebody will emerge as the party’s flag-bearer. Then we will show the opposition that we have a proper procedure of doing things in the PDP. It is the culture and way of life of the party. Those who are coming from outside the party to join us, from AD (Alliance for Democracy) to ACN (Action Congress of Nigeria), are the ones who are thinking that our primaries should be handled the way of Bola Tinubu. No, we don’t do that! And they know it. So why are they lying? And if any one of them is courageous enough, let him face me. What we have decided now is that those who will like to cause trouble for our party will be identified and advised appropriately to find a way to join the party like others and work according to the constitution of the party and not according to the constitution of Chief Bode George. This time, everything, like we did in the past, will be transparent. The press will be there. The civil society will also be there. Everybody will be there to see things for themselves. We will even pay the television stations to cover everything live, so that the larger society will see the proceedings for themselves and judge. These are the things that will give us an edge over our opponents. What programme does the PDP have for the large population of Lagos State, especially the non-indigenes whose votes are very essential? You know, the APC lied to Lagosians before, but now Lagosians have learnt their lessons. Lagos is a melting point and not a no-man’s land. Since l was a child growing up in Lagos, we welcome visitors and people who come to the state. Now since this population of people live and work here and contribute in one way or the other and pay their taxes, they must benefit on equal terms with other people. We will never, as a PDP government in Lagos, deprive other Nigerians who are bonafide citizens of Lagos. We will never deport them out of Lagos for any reason. That is insensitive, immoral, illegal and unthinkable for PDP. We won’t start another Ghana-Must-Go exercise, like those people. The camaraderie established at the confab has shown that we can indeed live in peace together in this country and we can achieve a lot staying together. I have a lot of hope. The Lagos PDP will be fair, just and equitable to all those who live in Lagos state. l have some children who are from the East, am l going to drive them away and say that l don’t know them? How would l do that? There is no part of this nation that is not God-given. Fashola has been accused of corruption, especially in his award of contracts allegedly to his cronies and family members, such as in the contracts for the beautification of Lagos. Do you agree with them? My position is that if the governor’s accusers know other things that were done under the table, let them bring them up. I am much higher than these mundane things. Fashola himself will really need to explain himself to the people when the time comes. If anybody accuses the governor of anything, of course, he has a right of reply. He is a citizen of the state and also he is a lawyer. You can see what they did to me. They conspired against me and wove all manner of spurious allegations with the NPA (Nigerian Ports Authority) against me and sent me to jail for 18 months for doing nothing. They did that in conspiracy with a young judge whom they used to achieve that purpose. We fought it all the way to the Supreme Court until the Solomons at the apex court of the land said no, that the judge erred in law. In civilized countries, that fellow (Justice Joseph Olubunmi Oyewole, now of the Appeal Court) would have been thrown out of the judiciary. My daughter, who is a young lawyer, and every other student of law, knows that you can not send somebody to jail for over a mere administrative instruction, which was not even proved. The moral guilt of that judicial decision would continue to hang on the neck of that judge until the rest of his life. It is very disgraceful that that kind of judge was promoted to the Appeal Court of this country. I have nothing against them anymore; l must say it so that others will learn. That was exactly what happened in the case of late Baba Obafemi Awolowo, when he was sent to jail in 1962. You remember that the trial judge then said his hands were tied. There is nothing that anybody does that is illegal or immoral that can be covered. I have left everything for the God Almighty who is the God of justice to judge. Justice and fairness are the tenets of the Almighty God, and if you don’t follow them, you will be punished. If nobody talks about it, my children too are lawyers. Daily Independent.
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 11:27:19 +0000
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