Buhari’s anti graft war is on course —Keyamo

Mr Festus Keyamo ( SAN), a Human Rights lawyer, believes that although the present administration has not won the war against corruption, it has nonetheless shown the resolve to wage it in spite of its deficiencies. In this interview with KEHINDE OSASONA, Keyamo also praised the government for moving against the Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB), for trying to precipitate genocide in the country.

Many people have complained that the justice system is the cog in the wheel against the war on corruption. As a senior lawyer, what is your impression about the Nigerian legal system?

Well, over the years, there have been various attempts to improve service delivery in the judicial sector. So, my impression is that we are not yet there but great strides have been made by the various judicial administrators in the past, especially the Chief Justices of Nigeria, to improve what they met on the ground and I can tell you that the present Chief Justice of Nigeria has taken steps to move the judiciary ahead.

I am sure you heard of the recent measures he announced to ensure that corruption cases are attended to speedily as a way of improving justice delivery at the courts.

Again, he also took steps to ensure that the discipline of judicial officers is effected, so, we are not there but over the years, improvement have been coming in stages.

But in spite of these improvements, the delay in getting justice still persists
Yes, justice delivery is still very lethargic; Nigeria’s justice delivery is still slow as against how we would expect it to be and the factors are so many but key among them is the analogue system with which judges are still recording proceedings.

Judges are still recording proceedings in courts in long hand. It is still a disgrace that we are still recording proceedings in long hand in our courts instead of doing such electronically and I cannot imagine that in the year 2017 and with advancement of technology all over the world.

Lately, junior lawyers have complained that senior Lawyers are fond of bringing in technicalities into legal proceedings in order to frustrate high profile cases. How true is this allegation? Are you guilty of this practice?
I cannot remember employing such tactic. Don’t also forget that most of my roles in some of the high profile cases is that of the prosecution, the tactics of delay they talk about is not in respect of prosecution but defense lawyers.

So, really, it does not apply to the roles I play most times because I do not do defense cases for an accused person, so it does not apply to me or my job description as a prosecutor.

Since President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration started its war against corruption, cases of alleged looters are still pending in courts. People accuse lawyers of frustrating such cases. How true is the allegation?

It still boils down to the analogue system of operation that I mentioned earlier. Now, two years down the line most of these cases which are less than two years are still on-going, I hope you know that less than two years in the life of a criminal trial is still not bad.

You can begin to raise alarm when such cases are now taking longer time. But with our peculiarities and the kind of problems we have had in the past in the judiciary, a trial that is still on less than two years does not give a cause for an alarm. I can tell you confidentially that most of these cases are at advanced stages.

Also, the Criminal Justice Act that has just been fast-tracked would by next year enhance quick delivery. Let me also tell you that those days of long trials are gone. The other ones you are seeing on the television have also called in witnesses and I can assure Nigerians that there would be torrents of verdicts soon.

Again, let me also mention that apart from conviction, part of the criminal process is also geared towards recovering ill-gotten property. So, criminal justice is not only skewed to put people in prison. Criminal justice is also skewed to deprive them from enjoying the looted property.

It is only in Nigeria that government, through a criminal process, will seize a property in Banana Island worth 37billion naira and they would now call on the public to say if you are the owner come out to identify, so that we can ask you how you got it. And they wait for months until final forfeiture order is given. It is disgusting really but, it is only here that you see such things.
Anybody that does that without rigours of legal processes; capturing somebody, putting him on trial, asking him to be convicted and his property confiscated. Anybody or government that does that clearly deserves an applause.

In fact, it calls for jubilation, forget political statements that usually blurs or that might be brought into it. Don’t also forget that a corrupt head of any agencies of government could as well keep that kind of information away from the public and share the proceeds of that crime. Although there are areas of failures no doubt but when we see pockets of achievements here and there, it is something to be cheered.

In order words, are you saying that the current administration is winning the war against corruption?
They have not won it, but they have moved it a step further from where they met it. Look, I hear criticism like government is not fighting corruption or not sincere at all or being one –sided; let me tell you this, it is better to have a leader who is fighting corruption half- heartedly, pretentiously, who is fighting it against only one guilty side for now, according to critics, than one who is not talking about corruption at all, who stealing is not corruption to him.

‘IPOB’s agitation is call for genocide’

Critics alleged that the war against corruption is one sided because many indicted government officials have not been investigated or charged to court. Is this impression correct?
Let me say that one of the major concerns I have about the president is that he appears to be weak when allegations of corruption are made about people around him. But he is very vibrant and agile when cases of corruption allegation is about other people other than his kitchen cabinet. Even his own party, we all saw how the Senator Bukola Saraki’s trial went and his stance despite the fact that they belong to the same party.

May be that is a particular weakness which calls for great concern. It is a cause for concern for me. But like I said, what we must do is to continue to highlight this weaknesses until he acts because there are other areas where he has shown courage. He has shown stellar quality of a president in tackling corruption, he has for instance not restricted the Economic and Financial Crime Commission in the line of duty.

He has moved against corrupt people from the North, West, East and Southern part of the country. Nobody can say the fight against corruption is sectional. Core northerner has been charged to courts; in fact the only two longest detainees of this government Col. Sambo Dasuki and El-Zakyzaky are northerners.

If a southerner had been in detention that long, tribalism and all sort of things would have come into the whole thing. But no Southerner had been detained that long by this regime. Although, I am not approving of their detention but I am saying that at the end of the day, it shows that the President has moved against his own section of the country. Recovery were made from the North, East, West, and South, I hope you know that. The weakness that I have spotted is what I have talked about.

My worry is that he has not demonstrated the same manner against his own kitchen cabinet, he should do that.

What is the legal implication if the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu does not come to court on the next adjourned date of his case?
The legal implication is not far-fetched; he would continue to be on the run. But I feel that if you are in a struggle for your people in pursuance of fairness as proclaimed then, you don’t need to vanish like that. It is wrong and cowardly.

What it means is that your thousands of supporters have been left in the middle of the sea. That is why one has to be very careful when you are inciting people because at times, you could be leading them to nowhere in particular. Kanu obviously took his people on a path that has no destination. You were preaching hate, preaching violence against other tribes, isolating other tribes in your struggle for self-determination. Look at the MASSOB, AREWA and OPC; these too are also self- determination groups but they are doing it according to international standard. Keep pushing, make a case on why your people can go alone, how viable your country is, how your people are of common origin and how you want to live. That for me is self-determination.

Self-determination does not connote killing any tribe or call a tribe goats. No! My mother is a Yoruba woman for instance, will you now call my mother’s people idiots and you want me to support you. You must examine your head. That is not self-determination but a call for genocide.

The implication therefore of running away is that the court will issue a bench warrant for his arrest, his sureties will forfeit their bail bonds. I think this is a very big lesson for politicians not to be doing things for political expediency, it is a very big lesson.

The bail process is a very tedious process, you don’t just wake up and say I want to sign bail bond for anybody just to get the support of your people and play with court process like that. Putting your properties worth hundreds of millions of naira on the line, for a boy you cannot account for his whereabouts. You don’t know how he sleeps and wakes up or where he goes every day. And now look at what has happened. Let us face the fact, the boy has chickened out and left his people for God knows where.

So, you are saying that Kanu deserve the treatment meted to him by the federal government?
The point is that he instigated his people so much to a point that he himself could not handle the situation again and he ran away. In fact, the Python Dance was the best decision the President ever took at that time.

From 2015 to now, it is only a president that does not know his job description that will allow such divisive tendencies to fester to a point where you can no longer contain it. Do you remember that with hindsight, 1967 war started like this?

Look at small boys who were not born during the civil war, now brandishing cutlasses, going to burn a mosque and ready to trigger crisis. What if there was reprisal attacks elsewhere. That would have been the end.

People who say they are statesmen and patriots will now find some kind of logic to support that kind of movement, because of what? That is why at a point, the five Eastern Governors said enough was enough, not me, their own governors were the first to say look, enough is enough.

Are you one of those advocating for restructuring?
Absolutely necessary and no doubt about it. It is only the content, the character, and the shape that is contentious. The only thing we should be talking about now is its feasibility, I mean question like how possible is it considering our constitutional and political setup?

But the fact that it’s necessary is not in doubt. I think we have gotten far from that. The north agrees, the south agrees, the north wants it in a different way, the west and east want in a different way. Everybody has virtually agreed that we should sit down and discuss and I think it is in order.

Also, restructuring is necessary because we have seen all manners of anomalies in the country, with some having an unfair advantage over others; is not a fair system and it must be addressed. But we should not forget that God in his wisdom has empowered the south with education. That is the truth and it is there in the statistics, and he also empowered the north with the population to get political power. The south is craving for some kind of restructuring of the political power so that they can also have access to power, they want it on the basis of equality.

The south is saying if we go by numbers, we will never get it so let us go rotational. The North is telling the south that we want to match up educationally and what have you. Can you see that? I think it is necessary for all the sections of the country to work on their inadequacies and catch up with the rest so that by 2050, things like quota system would not be there again so that we don’t go on perpetuating this imbalance forever.

 

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