‘ Buhari is Running the Country by Proxy’
Basking in the euphoria of his victory at the primary election of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party and hopeful of a to return to the House of Representatives in 2019, Hon. Kolade Victor Akinjo, representing Ilaje/Ese-Odo Federal Constituency of Ondo State bares his mind on some trending national and state issues to Olaseni Durojaiye
As a federal legislator, What’s your take on the recently signed Executive Order 6, recently signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari?
I recall that the only time Executive Order was signed was when he was ill and was outside the country. The Vice president, Professor Yemi nOsinbajo signed Executive Order 1,2,3 - as regards tackling the issue nof economy, how to register companies and many other things - before he came back from his sick leave.
So his coming with this Executive Order bordering on foreclosure of assets and banning of people travelling abroad until when their corruption cases are exhausted in court, is an order that is going to be fully tested in court. You will recall that it’s been tested in a High court; the High court has ruled that the president has the power to so do. I believe it will advance to court of appeal and eventually advance to Supreme Court but I know that constitutionally no one has the right to foreclose anybody’s right to movement and to own property. You have the right to own property in any part of the country except court of competent jurisdiction says otherwise. I believe a defendant is presumed innocent in any criminal matter except when it is proven. So to rush to the harbour of justice and put the processes in the hands of the executive is wrong. It is only the judiciary that can make an order like that, I believe such an order is reactionary, it is unnecessarily reactive and it is coming from a vineyard that is suffering from trepidation and fears.
Corruption is not something an individual can holistically tackle. You have to deploy rule of law and create institutional mechanism to tackle the issue of corruption so I believe that more than ever before such an order will likely inflict political and socio economic blow on our economy, that is very fragile at the moment.
The court has stopped some people from travelling in this country before now. The court has also adjudicated over some of these criminal matters and some People’s passports had already been withdrawn. Even some that are not related to corruption cannot travel. However, in this same country we have seen a case where the then head of pension agency who left the country came back and dramatically rose to become director in another department. I’m not sure his name is on the watch list.
The Minister of Finance who supposedly forged her NYSC certificate and left the country was not stopped. So what people are saying is that the corruption fight of this administration is targeted at opposition; that in itself has watered down the impact or the pursuit of genuine end to fighting corruption in this country.
It is heartbreaking that a man who ought to have deployed the right institutional mechanism to tackling corruption is beginning to hijack judicial powers and then falling back into almost a state of political anarchy and then colouring it with some kind of dictatorial tendencies. Nigerians who are all products of democracy and who have seen the actions and inactions of military at that time cannot accept that type of Executive Order just like that. The general perception is that the Executive Order 6 is targeted at people who are opposed to this government especially towards 2019 general elections.
Nigerians are surprised to witness the division as a results of primary elections some parties particularly the APC. I’m sure your party the PDP will be watching and hoping to capitalise on this cracks
Who would have expected that the ruling party will find itself in that state, with all the apparatus and paraphernalia of office will conduct itself in such manner? I am not a member of APC and because of some of their undecided cases one may not be able to speak authoritatively about their internal issues but because I’m a democrat and also and someone who takes pain to analyse and read in-between the lines, it is very clear that there is a lot of gap, crises and cracksn within the All Progressives Congress.
There is crises everywhere, Ogun, Niger, Zamfara states are all engulfed in crises. Ondo state APC is in political turmoil, some part of Delta too and so on. Lot of cases like that. I am aware that they sat in their rooms and nominated cronies for legislative positions.
And I’m also aware that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party did not help matters by saying direct primaries in one state and indirect primaries in the other, so a lot of confusion everywhere. You cannot get out of such disorganised primaries without being hurt.
I’m very sure that another political party like the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) will benefit from the problems in the APC. I’m a member of the PDP and I went through primaries in my constituency, Ilaje/Ese-Odo Federal constituency where I emerged as the candidate of my party. It was transparent; it was a delegate election, an indirect primary where people voted for who they wanted.
Yes, it is their internal problem but there is no way you can extricate or disconnect the general public from the political participation and development or habit in the political party. So by and large, I think it is too early for a party which is just barely three and half years to suffer this sort of political blow as a result of unpreparedness, lack of foresight and lack of right leadership to guide the party. It is very sad. From what I have heard from friends, colleagues and other people what is happening in the APC leaves much to be desired.
Unfortunately, a significant number of your colleagues might not make it to the 9th Assembly as things stand today. Talk us through how you scaled the primary election hurdles of your party?
For me, the major stakeholders in democracy are the people. Like I said in one of my theses, people are the oxygen of democracy, so if you want to oxygenate democracy then you oxygenate the people, if you disconnect yourself from the people for three years when you go write democratic or political exams, because party primary is like political exams then you get your result. The more you stay away or the more you are unable to navigate the people through your philosophies and market your programmes to them, the more problems you will have.