‘Why all Nigerians must fight corruption’

Mr Niyi Aborisade, a permanent representative at the Coalition of Nigerian Democrats in Germany (CONDIG), is the president, Nigerian Movement for Positive Change (NMPC), a Non-Governmental Organisation and Human Rights Activist group in Nigeria and the Diaspora. He speaks with TUNDE OGUNESAN on the fight against corruption in the country and other issues.

DO you think there is still need for democractic agitations in the country since we are already in a democratic setting?

Yes. There is no time that a human setting would not need a democractic organisation to give it a wake-up call. Don’t forget, Nigeria cannot be said to have achieved full democratic development. This is so because even countries that are known to have been operating ‘seemingly flawless’ democracy in the world- Britain and the United States- have never thought of not having democractic liberty organisations. In fact, I would say Nigeria is in this political mess today because most of the human rights activists went to sleep immediately after the military junta handed over power to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999.

Let me take you back the memory lane. Before May 1999, we had different kinds of human rights organisations like NALICON, NADECO, Civil Liberty organisation, Civil Liberty Watch and so on. But we all think that Nigeria is now a democractic society and went to sleep, but we are only in a civil rule and not yet in a democractic society in the real sense of democracy.

When I noticed that, in consultations with other top and dignified Nigerian professionals, home and abroad, we established the Nigerian Movement for Positive Change (NMPC).

What do you think entity needs to be worked upon for Nigeria to become fully democratic?

That is our major focus; that whoever will come out to serve in a public office must be a model product for the society and a pride of the micro society he or she is coming from- I mean professional fraternity.  We must all ensure that first; we have credible people in places of authority, so people must speak out when people express interests in political offices. We must be ready to start from that. Secondly, what are the challenges we’re having when people of questionable characters come out to contest for political offices? Our people must talk, this is our crusade. If we fail to do so, let me just hint Nigerians that the political thieves in the country are not only perfecting their trade but are fast registering their businesses.

You said Nigerians should speak out; don’t you think they did that by voting in the All Progressives Congress, which has made the fight against corruption the flagship of its agenda since it came into power in 2015?

All governments in Nigeria must fight corruption. That should not be made a political promise again. In fact, all Nigerians must rise to fight corruption in all sectors. From government – civil servants, politicians, corporate organisations, democracy groups, religious organisations and even in our private lives. It is when we make it our habit that it will even be easy for us to instituionalise it in public places.

What do you mean by institutionalising the fight against corruption?

I think we have institutions already. It depends on who is steering the wheel of that institution. We already have EFCC, ICPC, the police and other agencies established to serve as gate keepers to check corruption. But my concern is the way they are going about it. They are very selective in their judgments. Only people that belong to a particular political party are the ones that are being tried. Of course, we are not saying those people did not steal, but the fight should go round. People from PDP, APC, Labour Party and other party as well should be brought to books inasmuch as they have skeletons in their cupboards.

Another problem we have is our judicial system; I am talking of the legal system. The bedrock of any democracy is a vibrant judiciary. But ours now is a diametrical opposite of such. We have heard a lot of allegations against judges, so the judiciary has been undermined one way or the other. People have somehow lost confidence in the judiciary in terms of various allegations, though no one has been convicted among them.

Another problem is that the foundation of our legal system is faulty, particularly in the areas of technicalities. The foundation is cheeky. The bible says “when the foundation is destroyed what can the righteous do.” It is the major problem and a clog in the wheel of our legal system. In a situation whereby the court will not consider the merit of the case but cases are thrown out on the basis of technicalities; that’s a major problem. When you compare this with what we have in the UK, USA, it’s totally different.