Corrupt Judiciary, Threat to Democracy, Says Ewherido

Senator Pius Akpor Ewherido

Senator Pius Akpor Ewherido represents Delta Central senatorial district in the upper chamber of the National Assembly. In this interview with Anayo Okolie, he speaks on the way forward for Nigeria at 52. Excerpts:

In less than a week from now, Nigeria will be 52 years since independence. How has the country fared?
So many things still need to be put right. For industrialisation, we still need to get the energy sector right because once you provide stable electricity, businesses will pick up; production will be at lower rate because there is difference between when you produce with generator and when produce with electricity. Many benefits come with that. Thank God that government is putting a lot of effort into the power sector; my prayer is that we get it right this time so that we will have stable electricity in Nigeria because it will help in terms of industrialisation. Second, we still need to get the steel thing right; we built steel industries that are not working today despite the money we had invested in them. It is difficult for any country to grow without steel industry that functions well. Again, the twin problem of unemployment and poverty, we need to eradicate it. If there are jobs for people to do or if industries strive, of course there will be job for people to do and that way poverty will be wiped out because so many people are unemployed.

Looking at the current day problem, we need to get security right because the security situation in this country has reached a point that it requires an urgent attention because all that I have talked about, from getting power right, the steel industry and others cannot work in an unsecure environment. Nothing can work without a peaceful place. So, peace is security and pre-conditions for a stable working environment. These are some of the most important ones that I believe we need to get right before we can actually say that we are developing.

How about the beliefs that corruption is the bane of Nigeria’s development?
Corruption is a serious problem in this country but we cannot wait to solve the problem of corruption before solving other minor problems because you will wait forever. Corruption is as old as the human race. It’s just that the magnitude in Nigeria is unbelievable. I believe that to tackle corruption more sincerely, we need to strengthen the agencies that handle corruption matters- the ICPC and the EFCC. We need to come down from that level where we prosecute only people who have no connections because that is what is going on. People who have been prosecuted are not the most corrupt Nigerians. There are people who have been found more corrupt than most of those people who have been prosecuted but they are free.

So, we need to also have a reorientation, a new attitude toward the whole idea of corruption, and we also need to work on our judiciary because the way the judiciary handles corruption cases is such that you can just afford to commit corruption related crimes and go to court. Nigeria is one of the few places on in the world where every thief can go to court get an injunction and get away with it. The judiciary has a role to play. Thank God the Chief Justice of the Federation has promised to sanitise the judiciary and a lot of us are waiting for that cleansing because a corrupt judiciary is more dangerous than the other arms. So, we expect that cleansing in the judiciary will help our democracy grow. So, that those who won the election get elected by the people are returned. So, the judiciary has a major role to play because unless we have a corruption free nation at least free to an extent that people will have the conscience to know that if you continue to embezzle all the money we will not be able to develop. 

Are you worried about the unity and stability of this country? 
Since independence, I don’t think there has been another time that the unity of this nation has been as threatened as in the last one and half year due to the new type of insurgence. Many factors have arisen and different kinds of crimes in terms of militancy and the Boko Haram issue. Alongside the Boko Haram problem, so much has been happening in the South, most especially kidnapping issue. Today, if you go to those areas that used to have a lot of foreign presence in terms of industries, you will see that many of them had gone and with some of their investments too. Even the Nigerian investors are afraid of their own areas.

Nigerians are afraid in terms of living in some parts of the country, like Borno State, Yobe State and the other states where the activities of Boko Haram is prominent and you’ll hear people give a lot of interpretation to what is going on. Some people say it is a Christian and Muslim fight just to distabilise the country and these is not good for us and the unity of our country. So, all hands must be on deck if we must tackle this. The security in Nigeria today must not be left in the hands of the security agencies alone, we must involve the local people. That is why I disagree with those who are against state policing because I even support the idea of a local policing. It is easier for the local people within their area to nab criminals than when you come from outside. We must develop different forms of security involving our local people. I am very convinced as I sit here that if we had state police, the governor of Borno State has his own police; it would have been easier for him using the local police to tackle the insurgence of Boko Haram. But people read different wrong meanings to it that it will be abused by governors. Even the federal police can be abused. 

How would you assess the President’s performance in the Niger Delta?
The question of development of the Niger Delta region is not just an issue for Mr. President alone. Yes I believe that Mr. President should do more, but I also believe that our various state governments from the 13 per cent derivation they get should do a lot to complement efforts of the Federal Government. I am not too sure, because when people from the North question our governors about it, some of them say oh, we are not responsible to you. But those of us who come from the area that they are responsible to, I am not sure that we are convinced that all of them are doing enough for the region.

Do you support the idea of making local governments autonomous?
The question of local government in Nigeria is a knotty one and let me tell you, do not believe that this constitution amendment is exclusive in terms of the fact that only contributions from the National Assembly will be accepted. But specifically on the local governments, because of the worry of many people including a lot of Senators, it is an area I believe should be amended. And if Nigeria really wants proper grassroots development, we must amend the provisions on local governments. The local government in the constitution as it is today are just tied to the apron strings of the state governments; they have no independent recognition and all that is normal in a federal constitution is that local governments are normally not granted the kind of autonomy that we are talking about. But we are in a peculiar situation.

In our democracy, there is that peculiarity in the operations of local governments and our experience tells us, if we continue to tie local government to the apron strings of state governments, we will never know genuine grassroots development because we now know that governors pilfer the funds of local governments and which shouldn’t be so. Even the local government chairmen have complained. ALGON as a body has complained that what all governors do is to pilfer their funds. Some say they want to use it to do some other developments. Money allocated to local government is expected to be used for the development of that local government so you cannot appropriate local government money for them.
  

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