A responsible govt will promote judiciary independence – Owuru

Senator Musiliu Obanikoro was confirmed as minister by the Senate despite the allegations against him. What is your take on this?The Senate did not act well. They represent Nigeria and the image of Nigeria is important, a responsible senate would have differed that matter and seek to protect our image which is perceived as corrupt […]

Senator Musiliu Obanikoro was confirmed as minister by the Senate despite the allegations against him. What is your take on this?
The Senate did not act well. They represent Nigeria and the image of Nigeria is important, a responsible senate would have differed that matter and seek to protect our image which is perceived as corrupt and anything goes.
When a person is under investigation and wants to be a minister in Nigeria and has been seen to have abused his position in previous outing, there is need to be cautious. I don’t see need to confirm such ministerial appointment as we are close to elections unless they have ulterior motive. It is not a proper thing to do. Tomorrow if anything happens with Obanikoro would people not say that it was planned and degenerate into violence? That is why we must be careful even for the safety of the people who are elected.
Has the judiciary been able to sustain democracy?
The judiciary is a very important arm of government and we all desire an independent judiciary, hence we must have good government because a responsible government will promote independence of the judiciary, so that access to justice would not be impeded in any way.  You and I know that that is not the case now. Most of the judges now are card carrying members of political parties and that is what the government wants – to make sure that they are not probed because they are corrupt and they don’t want any independent judiciary. So we must have an independent judiciary because that will in one stroke clear corruption. Today we are in a sorry state.
As a presidential candidate of HDP, do you have the financial muscle to face the other candidates?
Recently we in HDP for the first time as a political party took the federal government to the ECOWAS court because our rights are being violated. A political party like PDP because they found themselves in power has appropriated the state House as its own and so with their candidate as president, used the State House to launch a N21 billion fund which is why you are asking me whether we have the wherewithal to contest and that is why we are in the ECOWAS Court to say that our right in the African Charter to participate in an election has been violated because charter does not require you to have all that money to run for the presidency of your country. All it requires of you is to have the character and the idea. So even our internal electoral laws are in tune with that as it limits how much you can spend for election.
Now if a sitting president with his attorney general do not seek advice on whether he is right or not for asking for donations from government agents and contractors in the State House – (N21bn officially recorded and the Dangotes, Ibetos  were not there), then what do you expect? Our society has been cowed. We the opposition has been intimidated and our rights violated. That is why we are in ECOWAS Court to seek for a pronouncement. It requires people like us who have the legal expertise to take on the government when we cannot fight with money. It is like the case of David and Goliath. You have dressed the Goliath with N21 billion but they don’t even have the armories nor the laws so it requires people like HDP to fight. So we are going to floor them with the laws, both in and out.
How do you intend to win power?
We have never been desperate and we don’t intend to be desperate. We intend to sell our message first. We begin to work on the message and that is why HDP set up a foundation called Hope Africa Foundation. We project that in the next five years our ideas will sell. There is need to groom new leadership and fair play. We are contesting ideas.
I am running as presidential candidate as a leader of an idea – welfarist party. We want to promote welfarism as an idea. Now we are at auto pilot, moving to nowhere and the corruption is free wheel and everywhere. Is that what we want as a people? We need leadership.
The present system has endorsed sycophancy, which is not seen anywhere else in the world because this itself breeds corruption. You don’t praise a sitting government. It is its responsibility to provide you all it can get. The state policy should ensure that you get your due but today you see people engaged in sycophancy. Nigerian leaders see themselves as tin gods. Instead of being investigated they are being praised.