I SEE A BIG CLOUD HANGING OVER NIGERIA – ELDER STATESMAN MBAZULIKE AMAECHI (PART SIX)

The national conference is underway now. Some people at the conference are suggesting the summary trial of past military leaders. Do you subscribe to that?

Of course. That is the only way we can stop this. Not even to be tried. No, because
the evidence is there. Rawlings did it in Ghana. Though he was a military man, but he decided to clean up the system. He brought back all the generals, all the people who aided the previous governments and killed all of them. And Ghana was cleansed. Somebody should have the courage to do that. Bringing back the military for trial?
Try them in which court? Which court? Which court will try them in Nigeria? Is any trial in Nigeria successful? Look at the governors who looted their states. EFCC arrested them and charged them to court. Have you heard about the cases again? Are the cases going on again? In this massive corruption and stealing has anybody been really convicted in Nigeria? The Yoruba leader of PDP, I don’t know his name; is it Olabode George, Who was convicted, has he not been cleared by the court? Look at the former Bayelsa State governor; look at the way he was pardoned. Well, the present president was his deputy. So we can understand what happened there. The man must have pity for his master. We can understand that. Look at the case of former Delta state governor Ibori. Ibori was cleared of all charges here in Nigeria, and yet for the same charges, he was convicted in England. So if the national conference is talking about bringing back these people to be tried in court, it is like walking around without moving.

Do we now agree that you don’t have confidence in the judiciary?

Of course. Not the present Judiciary. No. No. The judiciary to some extent is incapacitated by the system. Lawyers come and keep moving motions, laying technical grounds for adjourning cases and so forth. Cases are not adjudicated. Cases are not heard and they are dying technically and the people are moving around. The judiciary in the country is weak and rotten, just like every other sector. Every wing of the government in this country is rotten and weak, because they are not occupied by nationalists. The people who are in most of the offices lack what it takes to be there. We went into office as nationalists, not politicians. We were nationalists who fought for the independence of the country and drove away the white man.

There are still surviving founding fathers of this nation. I think there are just a few of you. Do you meet to review situations, and perhaps intervene at critical junctions?

That is when you are given the opportunity, when you are even recognized. For example, with me here, coming from Igbo land, nobody recognizes me. My governor doesn’t take notice of me. He doesn’t know that I exist. But we do meet informally to exchange pleasantries and …

(Cuts in) Do you mean the present governor or the former one?

The present one is just two months in office. I mean the former governor. In the country now, there are only five of us who served as ministers in the First Republic.

Culled from Sunday sun