NIGERIA’LL NEVER PROGRESS UNLESS IT’S RESTRUCTURED –ROBERT CLARKE

NIGERIA’LL NEVER PROGRESS UNLESS IT’S RESTRUCTURED –ROBERT CLARKE

Robert Clarke (SAN) recently granted an interview to  Sunday Sun on the state of the nation. The octogenarian who has been on  vacation in the UK came back during the week and bared his mind on some issues especially concerning Mr President’s health.

What message do you have for Nigeria now?

As a Christian, I believe in Psalm 23 which says “…though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil for thou art with me…”. Nigerians need to pray and recite Psalm 23 everyday now because it looks like we are walking in the wilderness of death. I’m not a soothsayer, but I can foresee that very soon, very soon, Nigeria is going to be embroiled in a  crisis if Buhari’s health doesn’t improve. Nigeria is going to be embroiled especially in a succession palaver but there should be no need for it. Like I said, ethnicity and religion are the two most damaging aspects of our life in Nigeria and they will now play out  should  Buhari’s health  deteriorate. We were lucky during the time of Yar’ Adua, Obasanjo played a significant role, whether bad or good depending on which side of the  divide you are but  he was able to rally the country round  to accept Jonathan easily. We need a strong man like Obasanjo to prevent  crisis.  Nigeria has to be careful  if the worst happens to Buhari which I don’t pray for but it’s inevitable for any human being. We should not make the same mistakes we made during Jonathan’s time. We should ensure that Vice President  takes over as President if Buhar is incapacitated.

What’s your take on the President’s sick leave? Some  believe  he should just step aside for  Osinbajo to rule instead?

As human beings, we can be  sick at any time.There are certain  sicknesses that are not life threatening and yet will be a nuisance  but nevertheless the constitution says where a president is incapable of performing the functions of his office then at that stage it can be determined whether he is fit or not fit to continue. If the illness has not impaired  his capacity to function in  office, he should continue.

What’s your take on the proposed  restructuring of Nigeria?

I have always said it, we can  never make progress until Nigeria is restructured and it shouldn’t be on the basis of ethnicity. What I’m saying essentially is that the system of governance should be changed. If  we are retaining the presidential system  then let’s do it the  South African way.

What’s your take on the controversy surrounding   Ibrahim Magu’s appointment as EFCC Chairman?

Section 5 of the Nigeria constitution says that the president is vested with all executive powers. The EFCC is within the purview of the executive powers vested in Mr. president and therefore, the appointment of the EFCC chairman is also vested in Mr. President, subject to the approval of the Senate. Where the Senate refuses or decides not to confirm a nominee, the president has the power to allow that nominee to stay in an acting capacity because the constitution has vested in him under Section 5 the power to exercise all executive powers.  In Magu’s case, one thing about him is his tenacity and ability to get results. He has at least been able to do this in his acting  capacity.   Mr. President can still recommend him  again for approval by the Senate.  Many of my colleagues don’t know where to hang this legality of asking him to stay in  acting capacity, because there is no law that says a chairman must be appointed at any given time. If somebody is acting, he is acting, the only difference is that he’s not the chairman; he’s only an acting chairman.  Mr. President can still retain Magu as  acting chairman of EFCC under Section 5 of the constitution which gives him all the executive powers under the law. So, he’s not doing anything wrong.

While you were away in the UK, you heard about the release of  82 Chibok girls. What’s your reaction on that?

Let me be honest, two weeks after these Chibok girls incident happened, I was on Channels Television and I warned that if nothing was done quickly to get these girls back, the problem in Nigeria will be that they will turn out to be suicide bombers or in the alternative they’ll be used as comfort women and  prisoners of war. Invariably, it has happened. You see,  their release is  belated but I thank God some of them have been released.

 Some of the girls don’t want to come back. What do you have to say about  that?

Well, let us be honest. These are young girls of 14, 15, and 16 years old. They are having sex for the first time and enjoying it and  some of them have been impregnated and bore children for some of these insurgents. You can’t blame nature playing its own part at this stage. An innocent 14 or 15 year-old-girl who had never known any man coming into that circumstance  would change immediately. I don’t blame many of them who have  refused to return to their homes because their new found life is different. They need physical  and spiritual therapy or whatever form of therapy to allow them adjust to  the reality of the life they are now living.

Do you believe there’s anything like a cabal in the presidency?

Since the advent of democracy, there have  always been  cabals anywhere. In civilized countries they call them  kitchen cabinet. The president has a kitchen cabinet. No matter what  they discuss at the Federal Executive Council meeting, subsequently the president summons  his kitchen cabinet to evaluate the resolutions of the FEC meeting just like the aforementioned kitchen cabinet. Obasanjo had it, any ruler must have it.  Information had it that when Clinton was president of America, after  observing protocols, he and Hillary, because she was an outstanding lawyer would still talk. Clinton  still consulted his wife on many of the issues before even taking a decision. She was part of Clinton’s kitchen cabinet even though she is his wife. It’s part of democracy.

What’s your take on  the Ikoyi gate scandal?

It’s one of the oddities in Nigeria. When you look at other African countries how many of them have an annual budget least of all such money  of that magnitude in limbo. Not even one. Let’s be honest, even our  neighbor here, Ghana, they can’t boast of  such huge amount in  foreign currencies in their vault. How can you keep such an amount of money in a three bedroom apartment?

But the money was said to belong to NIA?

Well, I do not believe that the money belongs to the NIA. I believe that  NIA was just  brought in by those who kept the money there as a ploy  to conceal the identity of the people  behind the scandal. That money belongs to the government, because no other entity can have  so much money  and keep it  somewhere. There’s no doubt about it   though  NIA is  now laying  claim to it as overt or covert money  and it does not sell to me. What I believe is that an individual who was in government  had access to just keep the kind of  money. Maybe they were using it for political campaigns. Maybe it was being kept to front the political machinery of the government of the day and they had to keep it there so that it will be available at any time they need it. It’s most surprising that even those who are neighbors in that place couldn’t  even smell  such huge freshly mint currencies. It beats my imagination that this could happen. As they claim, one woman came in silently and took as much as she wanted regularly. Well, that shows you the kind of country  we are in. In Nigeria, anything can happen. I regard it as miracle, it shouldn’t have happened but it shows the system in which we find ourselves and the system will have to change for us to survive as a country.  The only way they can cover up the true owners of the money is to allow the NIA to lay claim to it.

Was it from  the last dispensation?

It was from  the last dispensation, we know the situation of the dollar to the naira in  this present dispensation. It’s from the old dispensation where anything could happen.