FG has not taken fight against corruption serious -Nwankwo

What is your reaction to the proposed national dialogue by President Goodluck Jonathan?I don’t understand what the dialogue is all about and I don’t think the President has conveyed what he has in mind. This is a democratic environment so it is not just the president deciding what to do, he has to have everybody […]

What is your reaction to the proposed national dialogue by President Goodluck Jonathan?
I don’t understand what the dialogue is all about and I don’t think the President has conveyed what he has in mind. This is a democratic environment so it is not just the president deciding what to do, he has to have everybody following him, including lawmakers who are elected representatives, political parties and even the civil society. I don’t get the sense that he has spoken to any of these other key stakeholders. If he has thought through it, he has to convince Nigerians that he knows what his goals are so that they will share those goals with him.
The president has to explain what business he was trying to push through a constitutional conference at the tail end of his government. Maybe he does not understand it but in truth if INEC is to follow the constitutional provisions on the conduct of elections, it means that elections can be conducted as early as December 2014, which means in 15 months’ time. And there is nowhere in the world, particularly in this part of the world that you hold constitutional conference debate that lasted less than three years. So how would you in less than 15 months to elections spring up the holding of a constitutional conference. As far as l can see, I do not see any genuine intention to hold a constitutional conference. If I were Nigerians, the important question to ask would be “what is the purpose of this?”, rather than embrace what you can see clearly is leading to nowhere. I believe that there is an important need for constitutional conference for Nigeria to look at this document and agree on achieving a document that they would own and see as their own. But I do not think that this is the beginning of that discussion.
What is the level of corruption in Nigeria?
Things have worsened and the government has not taken the fight against corruption serious. I was in a tiny country called Mauritius and the country was beautiful but when I was coming back, at the airport I saw rain dripping into the escalator belt at our airport and this is an airport where billions of naira have been spent; where the president goes about proclaiming the works of the aviation minister. When you go to the airports in Nigeria, you will be ashamed that so much money has been spent on this so-called remodeled airports. You will ask yourself whether the aviation minister in Nigeria does not go through other airports.
The constitution provides that the same person cannot be an Acting President of the Court of Appeal for more than three terms but we have witnessed two Acting PCA who acted for more than three terms. What is your reaction?
There are several constitutional breaches and the president talks about respect for rule of law but when it is convenient for him he violates it. The constitution is very clear that you cannot have a person act consecutively as PCA. The constitution is very clear on this issue, so these are clear breaches of the constitution that the president has continued to perpetuate and it worries someone. Look at the chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), who was suspended from Office. The constitution does not allow you to suspend a constitutionally appointed person. Clearly the chairman of that commission has said things that are unacceptable for a person in that seat, but for you to stop those types of occurrences, what you should do is not to breach the constitution, you should take his case to the Senate which confirms his appointment and ask the lawmakers to take action on the complaint against him. If the Senate votes to remove him, then he should be removed. The law is quite clear and am not going into the merits of the complaints about the NPC chairman. Frankly I don’t know why he was appointed in the first place but these are things that have nothing to do with individuals but what the constitution says you should do and the president has breached this as well.

Do you agree that Nigerian lawmakers are being over paid?
It needs to be understood what exactly lawmakers are paid and I don’t think a lot of Nigerians understand what law makers are paid and the legislators have not sent out to Nigerians what exactly they are paid. I know that there are issues about what is due to them as salaries and what is due to them to run their work as legislators and as employers of staff who assist them. So once that distinction is not made, it creates challenge that Nigerians do not understand the actual pay of legislators. The legislators should open up and provide such information on what they get or should get as individual legislators and what they get to pay their staff and work in committees, their expenses arising as to their work as legislators, that is where there is a muddle up.
Do you support severance package for lawmakers?
I don’t believe that a legislator that has worked for four years should be paid a severance package, but if there is some other gratuity that is paid then it should be made public.
What do we seek to achieve at the end of the ongoing constitution review?
The last time there was a review of the constitution, in 2010/2011, there was the first amendment and that was what was achieved. The country saw more than 43 clauses of the constitution amended and passed. So basically if you are looking at amendment of constitution, once you have achieved its passage then you say you have achieved the purpose of it.
This current exercise, the purpose is that we will support the legislature to deliver on its promise of a second round of amendments that the country wants to implement.

Is there any single authentic document known as the 1999 constitution?
There is a single document known as the 1999 Constitution. What has happened is that so far we have seen amendments and we can count first, second and third alterations of the constitution. Those three documents are not held in the same volume as the 1999 constitution and individuals have tried to produce what they described as the constitution of Nigeria. The practice is that this would not be the official document known as the Constitution of Nigeria. Because it is individuals who perhaps owing to lack of experience have not been able to do this properly. You have different documents with typographical errors that are so fundamental that raises the question you have asked – “that what is the single authentic document known as the 1999 constitution?
The AGF owes Nigeria a duty to produce a single document known as the Constitution of Nigeria. That would incorporate these amendments that have been made so far. In the present time there is no such document and lawyers get to court and they are confused. They don’t know what laws to cite. It is a major shortcoming in the Office of the AGF.