Posted by By JOE NWANKWO, Abuja on
The Chairman of the Human Rights Violation Investigation Commission (HRVIC) popularly called Oputa Panel and retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Chukwudifu Oputa, has attributed the fear of possible outbreak of violence as one of the main reasons the commission's report has neither been officially published or implemented by the Federal Government.
The Chairman of the Human Rights Violation Investigation Commission (HRVIC) popularly called Oputa Panel and retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Chukwudifu Oputa, has attributed the fear of possible outbreak of violence as one of the main reasons the commission's report has neither been officially published or implemented by the Federal Government.
Justice Oputa, who just turned 86, stated that the decision to withhold the report was borne out of the need for self preservation, keeping the nation as one and avoiding unnecessary violence and blood shed.
According to him, "When a commission of inquiry is empanelled or is asked to do a piece of work, they are usually given a terms of reference and when you finish you submit your report to those who appointed you. In law, we say you are now funtius of officio. That is you have finished your work.
"What they do with your report is their job and no longer yours. They know why they appointed the commission. They know whether the report will favour them. They are human beings, they don't want to get out of where they are. The first question they will ask is if we publish this report how will it affect us? If the reaction will not be too bad, well that is a pass mark. Then, they may ask how the people will receive the report".
The eminent Jurist maintained that the Federal Government would have been stupid to release the report if security report showed that the contents may lead to unrest and blood shed.
"Another question the government may have asked is: will the report lead to unrest? If the answer is yes, then they will withhold the report until tempers cool down. There are a lot of responsibilities resting on the shoulders of those on top. You don't know what they take into consideration before arriving at a particular decision.
"So because they have not published the report, they have their reasons. But what is important is not the report but the commission's sitting which was broadcast live on the television and nobody slept until the programme was over."
Oputa, however, pointed out that the commission was not authorized to air the programme live but that they decided to make it an open sitting.
"We could have just sat in an office close the doors and done it, but we made it public hearing because we wanted to make people know what happened. It was covered by the television, radio and the newspapers and even in the villages we were seen and heard. So, they know what every witness said. They have their own impression about what happened.
"They have already formed their opinion about the government about what happened about what transpired during the military regimes and after the civil war. So it would have been better if the report were to be published but as I said, government has a right to publish or not to publish" he added.
Oputa Foundation
Speaking on the Oputa Spiritan Foundation for Elderly Missionaries (OSFEM), a five hundred million naira retirement home for missionaries, that he is supporting, the judge stated that it was his way of giving back to the Holy Ghost fathers who have given so much to the education of majority of the nation's educated elite.
According to him, "I am helping them to set up a retirement home. What inspired me to do that? Well, most of us are products of schools built and managed by the Holy Ghost Fathers. For instance, I went to Sacred Heart School at Oguta. It was a mission school. Then to St. Martin's School Ihiala, a mission school run by Holy Ghost Father, from where I proceeded to Christ the King College, Onitsha another mission school run by Holy Ghost Father.
"Most of us, at least in the Southern Province, especially Igbos, went to schools run by Holy Ghost Fathers. Those who were not Catholics went to school run by protestant missionaries. So missionaries have been instrumental in the development of Eastern Nigeria. It is my little way of saying thank you to them. My way of showing gratitude" he said.
Retired soldiers in politics
On the incursion of retired soldiers into the nation's politics, the octogenarian said as Nigerians, they have every right to aspire to the nation's highest office because the constitution did not restrict military men from going into politics.
According to him, "does the constitution say that because you have been in the military that you are no longer a Nigerian? If you say that because somebody has been in the military they should not be voted for, what about lawyers? If a lawyer had gone there and messed up should we now say that all lawyers should not contest in elections? They are all
Nigerians and it is left for Nigerians who have seen their actions while in office to either reject or accept them.
"But if the masses are conscientious, that we have seen your programmes and we do not think that they are the right candidates to lead the nation, they reserve the right to reject them at the polls. So the fault is not with the aspirants it is the right of the electorate to either reject or accept them at the elections" he noted.
Reacting to the quest of the Igbo to produce the next president, Oputa stated that there is the need for more voter-education in order to sensitize Nigerians on the need to remove ethnicity from the nation's polity adding "yes I am Igbo, but it does not really matter who the president is or where he comes from.
"He could come from any tribe for all I care what matters most is the quality of the person. Once he is a quality candidate and is honest and has integrity I am okay. The criteria should be more on whether he is a Nigerian and has all the necessary qualities required for the exalted office. We should not be parochial in our thinking. The tribe the president comes from should be the least criteria" he said.
Oputa maintained that you cannot be a Nigerian president if you are not a Nigerian. Adding that "it does not worry me where the person comes from if he is good, he is good. But if there is a clause supporting rotational presidency in the constitution, that would be a different kettle of fish. If it is there in the constitution, then we have to carry out the constitutional provision. But as long as it is not there in the constitution, there is no legal limitations limiting any body from any part of the country to aspire for the highest office in the land."
He charged Nigerians to vote in only credible individuals in the 2007 elections noting that "if you vote in people of questionable character, then you have with your eyes wide open voted in a thief into office. A leopard does not change its spots. Nigerians should be careful on the caliber of people they vote into public office.
"We are moving towards a goal we have not arrived there yet. If you look at the last stanza of our 1960 national anthem it said "oh God of creation grant this our one request help us to build a nation where no man is oppressed so that with peace and plenty Nigeria may be blessed" that is our aim. That is where we are heading to. We have not reached there yet, that is why we are asking God to help us build such a nation. If you build such a nation then all of us will be happy."