Posted by From TONY OSAUZO, Benin on
Former Governor of Edo State and chieftain of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Chief John Odigie Oyegun, has warned President Umaru Musa Yar' Adua to learn from the mistakes of former President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, else he may fall.
Former Governor of Edo State and chieftain of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Chief John Odigie Oyegun, has warned President Umaru Musa Yar' Adua to learn from the mistakes of former President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, else he may fall.
Speaking with Daily Sun on the anti-corruption war, Chief Oyegun expressed serious reservations about some of the people around the President and the things they do in his name.
'I hope he will take the earliest opportunity to disown them and off-load them. We must warn him that he should not become a Shagari. Shagari, a good man as he was, was brought down by the indiscipline of those he selected to work with him. He should learn a lesson from Shagari," the former Edo State governor stressed.
He also spoke on the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and says the party would destroy the nation if it does not self- destruct first.
According to Oyegun, the Yar'Adua government must recognize that the war against corruption is one of the most engaging items as far as public attention is concerned and it is one of the most popular policies any government can pursue.
'With the kind of revelations from the few former governors who have been charged to court, we have a nation that is truly angry with the depth to which its resources have been pillaged," he observed.
Nigerians, Chief Oyegun points out, are keenly watching the way the government is handling the anti-corruption war, and the actions of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), adding, 'the issue now is that the government itself is on trial, it's in the dock of public opinion."
He supports the concept of plea bargain in the trial of those who looted public treasury as a way of reducing the enormous cost and long time of litigation. But he insists that anyone found guilty should be stripped of all his ill-gotten wealth and be made to serve a prison term, no matter how short in order that he or she becomes 'a registered convict", even as he canvasses sanitization of the nation's legal system to remove the rot in it.
Chief Oyegun comments on his expectations from the political reform panel and says enforcement of laws was the best way to instill order in the polity, just as he canvasses that provision should be made for independent candidates in the expected reform.
Expectation from political reform panel
Let me give you my honest answer. My honest answer is that there is no amount of safeguard that can solve the problem unless there is strict enforcement of laws of this nation.
Let's take the existing situation. We have come across a lot of bare-faced illegalities by top level INEC officials, police and politicians. It should be mandatory for all these people to be charged to court and appropriately dealt with, according to law, meaning that the laws must be enforced. If they are not enforced, you can pass all the nice laws, construct all the structures and it will be to no avail.
We do not enforce laws in this country, particularly as it relates to government in power. Otherwise, many INEC people, including the INEC chairman, should be in court today, being tried or awaiting trial. That is the bottom line. When you do that and do it consistently, then, of course, people know that there are now boundaries, you have established boundaries, that illegalities will not be tolerated. Without that, it is difficult to see what structures you can build that will work.
Having said that, the situation can still be improved tremendously through changing some of the existing structures, beginning from INEC. We should look at how the chairman is appointed; what kind of persons they appoint; should political parties be represented at all levels and in every electoral body?
The appointment thing is important because if I, John Oyegun were president, as much as I may be fair-minded, I will not appoint somebody or I will not suggest or nominate somebody who I know is not likely to be sympathetic to me.
He doesn't have to work in a criminal way as happened now with the last set of elections. But he should, at least, be sympathetic to me and to my cause. That is human.
So, that is the beginning of the problem. Unfortunately, our people have gone beyond that to appoint not just those who are sympathetic but actual hatchet men who engage in bare-faced criminality in order to serve their master. That is the starting point of the problems that we have had.
Independent candidates
We must have provision for independent candidates. That will help internal democracy within the party. If anybody feels he has been wrongly treated and that he is so popular and on his own can win an election, let him go and contest and prove the point that the party is wrong as far as his nomination is concerned.
The PDP
If PDP does not self-destruct and it's not assisted to self-destruct first, I can tell you almost surely that it will destroy this nation. That is the sole reason some of us are staking our credibility and our political career in supporting President Yar'Adua.
If it is possible for him to reform the system, that will be better and every right-thinking Nigerian should assist the President in that regard till he proves not to deserve our trust and our confidence. So far, I don't think he has done anything not to deserve our trust.
Reservations about Yar'Adua's aides
We have serious reservations about some of the people around him and things they are doing in his name. I hope he will take the earliest opportunity to disown them and off-load them. We must warn him that he should not become a Shagari. Shagari, a good man, but was brought down by the indiscipline of those he selected to work with him. He should learn a lesson from Shagari.