Many people are of the view that you and have fallen apart with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, APC National leader, who was once your godfather?
When people say this, I laugh. There was no disagreement between my leader and I. The leadership of APC, simply put, are loyal. The national officers of the party from the south west and various state chairmen are always together, so, I am not aware of anybody that is falling in or falling out there. All of us are together. We attend the same meetings and we take the same decisions. Constitutionally speaking, that is a lie. Secondly, I don’t understand the fall out thing, there can only be a fall-out if there is a conflict and there cannot be conflict except we are fighting over something. So, in my own view.
To a large extent, if you have been watching my utterances for over ten years, I have been consistent in saying that I am not a good politician. I am just a professional in politics, born out of good interest. I am a lawyer by profession, he is not a lawyer. So there cannot be a conflict because there are different goals we pursue. As far as I am concerned, you can never see me dragging anything with anybody. My interest is how to achieve good governance, and how we can achieve that is my concern.
For example, when I observed that there were so many interests in the environment sector, particularly in Lagos state, I voluntarily decided to step aside from them and form a movement called United Action for Change (UAC). That is what I am pursuing on my own. That is an independent platform consisting of different human beings, irrespective of party affiliation….. so, for me, there can never be a conflict between us since we are not in the same environment and do not have the same ambition.
A few years ago, you delivered a lecture at a colloquim organized for Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Governor of the State of Osun at Eko Hotel and Suites, where you criticized the mode of choosing people for political appointments in your party; which you described as improper. This did not go down well with the leadership of your party, which we believe, led to the genesis of your problems with the party?
The lecture I delivered was not directed at any political party but to anybody that is involved in the doings of the opposition, and there are so many of them all over the country. If everyone wants to exercise that liberty, there would be conflict. That is why we have a constitution or a guideline. All of us came together and set rules of engagement and how things are to be done. As a national legal adviser under the APC, imposition is not permissible under our constitution. There are procedures for nomination of a candidate and regardless of your status, you must adhere to the dictates of the party’s constitution. Of course, it is just like a sermon. When sermon is being delivered in a church, if it touches you, you probably will feel it, but if it doesn’t concern you, you ignore it. For me, that is just what has happened. Though I get negative reactions from the people, I don’t care. My position remains that when we agree to do something in a particular way, everybody must adhere to it.
I said that the fundamental problem of Nigeria is the value we attach to the rule of law. Some groups claim that they are higher than the rule of law and that is where our problem is. If we all agree that this is our constitution, this is our guidelines and we all follow the rule, definitely, there must be peace in the society and our expectations would be met.
If there is any legacy that I would want to leave behind, it is that rules and regulations must be complied with, regardless of who or whatever entity that is involved.
Sir, are you now talking about elective postion, because people believe that you are also a beneficiary of imposition that you are now preaching against?
When you talk of a position, it relates to elective office, not appointment. In terms of appointment, you can pick anybody from your bedroom. Even in our party constitution, I have not seen where it was said that this is how you should make your appointments. It is only in elective positions. I have never been in an elective position. I have never contested for any position.
When we started this government, that is in 1999, we held primaries and that has been the trend. What l am saying is this. In terms of appointment, anybody can be appointed but when it comes to election, we must comply with the processes involved.
I cried out in my party when it got to the level that before you become anything in the party, you must know certain people. It is not supposed to be so. That is my position and stand.
What is your ambition in the next dispensation
Me, I don’t need it. I am a lawyer, my ambition is always professional. Secondly, I think the religious book said it that for you to be anything is a function of grace and not knowledge and power. So if I would even become anything in politics, it is in the hands of God.
Another problem in Nigeria is that we place strong individuals in position as against strong institutions. When you have strong institutions, regardless of who is involved, everything would work. If we do not, the struggle continues. We don’t have to continue in a society where people are doomed for not knowing somebody.
We need to build an institution that you don’t need to know anybody there, where all of us will work to make things better.
You resigned from your party as legal adviser due to your problems with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) but your party’s national leadership rejected your resignation. Why did you resign at all?
This was came down to the issue of integrity. All I am saying is that they should allow me to settle my matter with the EFCC. I have never been involved in any shady deal in my life. I am a professional in politics. They later wrote and advised us to meet with our party leardership, I think they have convinced me of why I should be with them towards building the party.
You wrote to step down as legal adviser but in Nigeria of today, it is rare to see people write to step down from exalted postions. Like the case of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki who is facing trial before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) and yet he is still heading the upper chamber of the National Assembly. What do you have to say about this?
If I were to be him, I would have gone since. Integrity should be ones watchword. I don’t see myself in that kind office up till now, with the case currently going on at the CCT. May God save us in this country.
What is your assessement of the Buhari administration so far?
Yes you are getting what you voted for. You voted for comfort, and you are getting comfort. See, what we are going through is what I have consistently described as ‘birth pain.’ When a woman wants to deliver, she would go through a lot of severe pain and when at last, the baby comes out, she is happy. That is exactly what we are going through. Radical change inflicts pain and we must have to sacrifice, we have to endure, it just for a short time.
Don’t think about what would happen in 2019, lets build a solid foundation so that whosoever would come in would continue on the solid foundation.
We are still building the foundation; we have to do a lot of restructuring. We all have to be patient. All of us are going through pain and we just have to endure.
You will agree with me that there are some infrastructure that has to be in place to drive the economy. Although I am not an economist, I provide my own advice from the legal angle, the economy is going through restructuring.
Four years ago, we brought in some promoters for the project….that will help people to be able to go round the southwest in one and half hours, but we were frustrated because of the activities of the government. I believe that infrastructure is key. I also believe that part of the way to go about it is to implement Public Private Partnership, PPP, effectively. Let the private sector be given the support to do the work and a platform to make money out of it. Nobody will want to invest money where he would not be able to recoup it. Let them be allowed to recoup their money.
It was alleged in some quarters that the utterances of President Buhari and members of your party men has had an adverse effect on the economy. What is your view on this?
By doing that, we are telling foreigners that ‘my people are corrupt’. Who wants to do business with someone that is corrupt? Nobody would come. That is why I do tell the media not to publish without investigating. I have seen so many cases in the media where immediately they read about a case, the people that know the person would come to a conclusion without getting the details. We need to carry out our investigations; that is what is called institution.
How would you rate Ambode’s administration in Lagos State so far?
Well, the problem between I and Ambode’s government is that I am not part of it at all, so I cannot comment on it. You see, we have a different modus operandi. The way they are going about government is not the way I understand government operates. So, we have a fundamental disagreement, because what I consider to be our priorities are not what they are doing. Example, this road, we normally have problems here, and the major problem we normally have in Lagos is that of traffic. Where you have traffic as early as 4:00 am. but he wouldn’t buy the idea on the solution to these traffic problems.
It was alleged that you always have problems with people in government, why?
I believe anybody that must be successful in life must be able to accept criticism. In fact, to succeed, you need to look for the people that would be antagonistic, you can even call them on your own. At the end of the day, you can modify to bring out the best. But if you are looking for sycophants around you, you are doomed, they will always agree on what you want to do; at the end of the day, you would not achieve any tangible result. You need people to chart and dramatize your ideas.
That is why I tell people that I have no personal quarrel with anybody but I can quarrel with the ideas, and I enjoy it. Maybe it is because of my background, my background is academics. An academician asks: “is this the best way of doing it”? unlike some other professions that follow the status quo. He looks into the weaknesses in the idea and fashions out a better way of doing it to achieve the same objective. That is the way we are trained. In the same circumstance here, if I see people in the government, I want to engage them; I don’t criticize for criticism sake.
So for me, there’s nothing personal with anybody. That’s why when people say they are fighting, I will ask: fighting over what? I always ask them: who told you that I want to be politically relevant, not to talk of political leadership? I want to be professionally relevant, that’s what I want.
Who is your role model?
Late Professor Jelili Omotola. He taught me the courage and mechanism for success. I would always say, ‘no excuse for failure, failure is failure.’ You can never walk with the late Omotola and come back with failure in your life, it is not possible. In fact, I used to teach others who didn’t know because I was like a personal assistant to him, so people would come and ask me how he did what he did. If the Prof. asks you to go and buy fuel, if don’t buy that fuel, don’t come back, just disappear, you must bring the result first. I used to tell people that suffering and benefit goes together. If you work, then you enjoy, if you don’t work, then you surfer.
What message do you have for Nigerians?
As much as you can, try to be righteous. Love God, because the fear of God is everything. Everything anyone gets in life is by grace.
