Posted by By PAUL ORUDE, Bauchi on
Second Republic minister of Internal Affairs, Dr. Ibrahim Tahir has called on the House of Representatives panel probing the $16 billion spent on power sector by the Olusegun Obasanjo government to be cautious, saying the revelations coming from the exercise are capable of causing more harm than good in the long run.
Second Republic minister of Internal Affairs, Dr. Ibrahim Tahir has called on the House of Representatives panel probing the $16 billion spent on power sector by the Olusegun Obasanjo government to be cautious, saying the revelations coming from the exercise are capable of causing more harm than good in the long run.
Tahir, in an interview with Daily Sun, says: 'The enquiry that is going on at the National Assembly and things it could open up is like running a three-legged race in a track that is strewn with eggs. Maybe you shouldn't run the race at all and probably leave situations and give the state its peace."
He argued that even though the House, through the Committee on Power, means well, 'if there is a lot of argument now, a lot of confusion and mystery about where the billions of dollars went, I am not one of those who will be surprised. As to the timing of that enquiry, I would have thought that what has been done cannot be undone."
The Talban Bauchi said further: 'It is my hope that the matter will be handled with the greatest delicacy by the National Assembly. I am one of those who do not believe in corruption.
'If Nigeria is really serious about fighting corruption, we should copy China and the Soviet Union of those days in terms of the punishment they meted out to economic saboteurs. I feel sad, but there's a way to deal with corruption. Everyone handling the fight against corruption should do it with restitution in mind rather than humiliation and public disgrace. It should be done quietly, privately and in the most discrete manner. Handle those who represented your country's image with care and make sure you recover what has been made away with. You do not, in the process of cleaning up, become the swimmer in glue.
'It should be done in camera. Make it a committee matter and try and clear the gallery and do this thing in private and issue statements on what you've found in such a manner that it does not shake the tree, not to talk of digging out its roots. If you are sure something has been taken and if you have proof, make sure it is returned. The consideration should be the safety of the nation.
'I have this fear about Obasanjo era and so many big actors in it that you might end up not being able to achieve much other than stirring up one almighty commotion. Handle with ease, handle with great caution. It makes very big showmanship. It makes a great deal of heroes out of persons who normally should not have been heard of because they are minding their own private lives carefully and not pushing themselves into any difficulty.
'But at the level it is going on now, I hope the legislature has given the security services a great deal of time to prepare to defend our internal peace and internal order. Some processes are good for democracy, but the country has been made somewhat ramshackle in the last eight years."
Tahir spoke further on other national issues.
Atiku, Buhari and the Supreme Court
A long time ago, I challenged the introduction of the unified head of state and chief executive in one person. I fought along with Dikko for something of the African tradition which has been copied by France in a conditioned and modernized form. I believe, in future, most elections if not all elections, will be won in court. The point is that Nigerians dispute almost anything and almost everything before they even want to listen.
Since 1999, every election, almost everywhere has been a court case. As for Atiku and Buhari, I must confess that there is some advantage to their going to the Supreme Court because it finetunes our democracy, it finetunes some of the basic ideas and it especially underlines the crucial role of law in the management of such a constitutional set-up. The Nigerian Supreme Court is being profiled rather more vividly than people might have expected. In this respect, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo said something that everything in civilization is meant to serve mankind. The higher interest, if I may use the convention of classical thinking that the higher interest must supercede the lesser interest, the present circumstance of Nigeria has not called for facing jurisprudential positioning and grandstanding. What it calls for is statescraft, more than juridical niceties.
Assessing Yar Adua's performance
I would suggest that what is important is to maintain the way he started and to move forward in that direction, starting with a decision to follow the Constitution, and tending to corruption and behaving more or less like the President of a well organized country, which allows the system to work thoroughly. He has refurbished the security service, he has refurbished the condition of service of the police, he has given ordinary policemen things they have been denied for years, and probably will do more in due course. As far as the Niger Delta is concerned, he appears to be taking the right course and the traditional Niger Delta stuff is becoming less. So, there is likely to be a return to the kind of Nigeria people were used to which had standards, before 1966.