Professor Itse Sagay, SAN, headed President Muhammadu Buhari’s advisory committee on anti-corruption.
He speaks with Tribune Newspapers, OLAKUNLE TAIWO on the legal implications of the Kogi governorship election, why some key institutions are corrupt, the president’s integrity and his anti-graft crusade, among others.
Excerpts:
With the way the Kogi and Bayelsa elections went, do you think INEC will live up to expectations?
Well, I am very close to some of their top officials somehow and I know that they dance to the tune of the politicians, especially the incumbents. For instance, in Kogi, before the election, the people and key PDP stalwarts didn’t support the candidacy of Idris Wada. However, the APC should not have got that kind of votes. And when that kind of a thing happens, that is the loophole INEC takes advantage of to the advantage of whoever it wants to support. People still buy INEC and that is the truth. In Lagos State, for instance, no other party can win except the APC.
Why?
All the INEC officials in Lagos are on the payroll of someone who will ask you what it takes to win. Someone who is ready to give you more than you ask for. It is everywhere but it depends on who can spend more. And that is why you see a civil servant who is an INEC official with so much money. I have many friends among them and the salary of these senior people is not more than N150,000 per month, but they have houses everywhere. Where did they get the money? One of them, after the 2011 elections, bought a home of about N100 million, where did he get the money?
If the judiciary and INEC are in such mess, what then is the place of integrity in Nigeria’s society today?
Integrity is very rare now; people no longer say ‘if I die, I die.’ Though we still have people of integrity, they are scarce. And where integrity is lacking, anything can happen. Immediately President Buhari got to Aso Rock, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Department of State [Security] Service (DSS), as if they have not existed before, began to arrest and do all sort of things. But, if you look at it holistically, are they saying it is only PDP governors or public office holders that are corrupt? No. One thing is that they are doing whatever they are doing to please the president, who can hire and fire them. Which of the governors, out of the 36 states, is not corrupt? So, why is it that only PDP people are being chased up and down?
Does that mean that as the head of the advisory committee on corruption, you are not satisfied with the whole thing?
As much as I am not a politician, one thing I know is that the anti-corruption crusade is selective, but most of the people being pursued by the EFCC are corrupt. What we are saying is that all others in the APC that are stealing should also be chased if President Buhari is really serious about this corruption of a thing. It is only then that the fight against corruption can be seen as fair and balanced. When there is no equity and justice, people will begin to doubt your integrity in whatever you are pursuing. For instance, if we recall 1983 when Buhari/Idiagbon came to office, immediately they knew there was corruption, they changed Nigerian currency so that all the people that had stolen money and kept it at home had such rendered useless and all corrupt officials were arrested.
But you also have to remember that Ambrose Ali died in prison; Adelakun, who was deputy governor to Bola Ige, died in prison; Olabisi Onabanjo developed kidney problem in the prison. Most of these people were Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) governors. But in whose house was N50 million cash belonging to the government was found? That person was only given a house arrest, because he is a Northerner. No Northerner was treated the way they treated the Southern governors. That is why as much as I respect President Buhari, I know that his sincerity is not total.
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