By Henry Uche
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Femi Falana (SAN), in a monitored interview on Channels TV spoke on the just ended protests, scarcity of PMS, among other issues.
How do you see the protest so far?
Well, I never thought in my wildest imagination that what started as a peaceful protest will snowball into a campaign by some elements for an unconstitutional change of government, whichever way you look at it. It is totally unacceptable, because for almost three decades, Nigerians went through a horrendous experience to chase the military out of power in Nigeria, we’re also involved. Some of us were also involved in the struggle for the democratization as it were. A number of African countries, were involved in the struggle against apartheid, in the struggle against colonialism in the southern African region, and currently, I’m personally involved in the campaign against the colonization of Western Sahara by Morocco. So, to that extent, we cannot hold our arms and allow undemocratic process to undermine the democracy process. We are bound to have peaceful protest. We are bound to disagree with those who are in power. We are bound to condemn the denial of the dividends of democracy to our people, but peaceful protest should not be allowed to degenerate to a situation whereby sources of suppression will take advantage to begin to demand for an unconstitutional change of government or campaigning for military rule in one form or the other. I can understand what is going on, for me, it is the tragedy of not teaching history in our schools.
We fight uninterrupted civil rule for 25 years. So, you can imagine that those who are 40 years now were probably 15 when the military was forced out of power. So, for those who are under 40 in Nigeria and majority are, they have not been told, they have not been taught in any school what Nigerians went through under all manner of military dictators ditto the Civil War, because the issue of the Civil War has not been taught in our schools. Many young people are calling for a war in many parts of the country, so a lot of lessons should be drawn from this experience. Again, last year, after the elections, there were people who called for military in Abuja and since nothing happened to them, others now feel that it’s a normal call. There is a disagreement, either with the government of the day or with other forces in the country but we must not allow enemies of democracy to derail the process. But it’s also a challenge to those who are in power at the federal, state and local governments, to take this as a wakeup call that for Nigerians, it cannot be the same again by seriously addressing the crisis of poverty, of injustice, illegal arrest and detention without trial, because when you Listen to some of the demands, you will discover that a lot of these issues, a lot of the problems could have been resolved by the government. And when I talk of the government, I do not need the Federal Government alone and that is why I have demanded, my organization has demanded that we take the issue of accountability very seriously at all levels of government in Nigeria. And for the elite, our job is cut out for us by this experience. Never again are we going to allow children 18. 5 million children, never again should we allow them out of school? That is the figure that UNICEF gave and over 60 percent of that figure can be located in the North. So, there are young people, there are children who are permanently on the street. So, when there is any little gathering or any form of gathering of people, they are bound to join. And when it is a protest for young people and for others who have not eaten for days, they think it’s an opportunity to join the looting culture in the country. And when I talk of looting culture, I’m talking of looting, grand looting by members of the ruling class, those who are facing trial for looting the treasury to the tune of N109billion. Someone is on the run who has been charged by the EFCC for looting a small state to the tune of N80billion. So, when people read about this, young people read about this, they are also instigated to want to take advantage of a protest, go either loot warehouses and the rest of them. Of course, that is not justifying, you know, looting by any group of people, but the language must now change. I’ve been discussing with my colleagues the usual language of the law must change. When you are talking of looting, it must not apply to only those who are helping themselves when you have a protest. We must, in fact, now go all out to the few people, an infinitesimal minority of politicians looting the treasury to the extent that you have the young people on the street, you have people who cannot have one meal a day, to the extent that our roads are bad, to the extent that people are dying on the roads. So, I believe that we must look at this crises in all ramifications, not only from the point of view of law and order, the social implications of the crises on ground must be examined. Again, as I said, we are not going to have solutions to our problems by embracing military rule having regards to the colossal damage going to the progress of our country, the underdevelopment of our country, that is traceable to all manner of military dictators, and that is why we must go all out and ensure that no group of Nigerians will find military rule attractive.
What do you figure out could have brought this international dimension, where we now see foreign flags being flown in our country among other daring actions by the protesters?
The Russian flag, being hoisted or being taken around, can be traced to the crises in Niger republic, as far as many of these guys are concerned, and I’m talking of the conscious elements that introduce this dangerous dimension to the protest.
I think what they are trying to achieve is to say, Whereas Nigeria led ECOWAS, to threaten the military government in Niger, this time, we are supporting the military government in Niger, in Burkina Faso, in Mali. Since Russia is the main backer of this military regimes, we also want a situation, I mean, we are supporting Russia, and we are taking advantage of this, because if you also listen to the campaign, they are calling for outright military rule in our country, a very dangerous call. That explains that. But again, the Russian government to the embassy in Nigeria said, we have nothing to do with the protest in Nigeria. But I am saying that a few elements took advantage of the protest to introduce the Russian flag to make their point and to support their call for our military dictatorship, a return of the military in our country. And I’m saying that, that will have to be resisted by Nigerians. In as much as Nigerians have the right to protest, peaceful protest must not be allowed to be hijacked by any group of people to demand a return of military rule in our country. It is not going to move us forward. It is going to take the country more than 40 years back, and that has been an experience, and the experience of some of the countries where people are embracing military rule.
Citizens are asking, state governments, where is our money you received every month?
For example, in April of 2023, the three tiers of government shared N872 billion. In May of 2023, the three tiers shared N786 billion. In June 2023, the three tiers shared N907 billion. In July, they shared N966 billion. Compared to January of this year, 1.1 4 trillion; February of this year, 1.2 trillion; March, 2024, 1.12 trillion. April, 2024, 1.08 trillion. For example, Zamfara State, in the monies announced by the budget ministry to be disbursed to fight poverty, over N20 billion alone will go to Zamfara. And so, the question would be, what are these monies used for?
It is important to recognize that the removal fuel subsidy last year, as I did point out in a lecture in Lagos last year, has enriched the three tiers of government in the country, the Federal Government, the local government and state government. And your figures are not even quite up to date, in June last year, yes, N900 billion was shared. But actually, what came to the coffers then was N1.9 trillion. The two tires of government- the Federal Government and state governments decided to keep back 1 trillion Naira. In December, it was N1.7 trillion that month, on December 3 last year, the Federal Government disbursed N135.4 billion to state governments to fight poverty. Again, this fund, was coming from the $750 million loan taken from the World Bank to fight poverty by the state government. In July, about two weeks ago, the Federal Government did another disbursement of N438.3 billion. Under the Buhari administration, between 2022, and 2023, about N112billion from the same fund was disbursed. And my position is that, in all the states of the country, it is difficult to locate programmes that are designed to confront poverty. But I must say, this time, Anambra State and Kaduna did not partake in the N438billion because the agency in charge of disbursing the money, they say that they were still expecting the reports from the two states of previous disbursements. So, we are talking of 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory, having received N438 billion to fight poverty. Why issuing these, is that, whereas in December, when I pointed out that N135 billion had been given out as part of post -covid 19 programme, this money had been given to the state. I was abused by one of the presidential asides, I think one Tope Ajayi, came out to lambast me, that I was exaggerating the figure. Now, happily, the Federal Government has now been compelled to say the total sum of N570 billion had gone to the states in the last nine months or thereabout. In other words, the N135billion and the N438 billion, totalling N573 billion. So, if you have that kind of money in our country, I am challenging the elite. I’m challenging our people, traditional institutions, youth organizations, women groups, and the rest of them to go to each of the state and demand from the governments what projects are going to be carried out from this fund. I’m also pleading with Nigeria to ask the legislators, those who took N500 million in Abuja, the Senate president that took N4billion for constituency project. This is the time to ask what these projects are about, we must ask each of the legislators so that we can begin to take accountability seriously and beyond the protest, we must all go back to the drawing table to demand for accountability.
$750 million US dollars that was published in the newspapers, disbursed to the states, as reimbursement to state, and the FCT, which it was supposed to be Covid 19 actual recovery and economic stimulus programme, that money is a credit, a World Bank supported credit, which we must pay back… Zamfara State would receive over N49 billion; Nasarawa State would receive over 27 billion, Plateau over N26 billion, Gombe over N25 billion; Kebbi, N21 billion; Cross River, N20 billion; Rivers, 19 billion; Niger, 17 billion. This is the purpose of this money, a programme for intervention, what is the evidence of these monies in real time?
Now, those projects must be published for which reimbursement is being claimed in Abuja. If you are saying that a state like Zamfara has spent N21 billion on fighting poverty, we want to see the evidence, because Nigerians are going to pay back the loan, and that is why it is the business of everybody to demand accountability. And that is not to talk about the monthly statutory allocations that have improved, that has increased. Again, Nigerians must demand explanation. We must also demand explanation from legislators, state and federal that are also collecting money for constituency projects so that these projects can be located in the constituencies in the interest of our people, and that is how you can prevent fighting poverty by creating jobs that you can begin to address the problem that drive people to the street.
The big lesson learned
President Bola Tinubu has slightly said that he appreciates the problems, the crises, the hardship that drive people to the street, and I think that is very fundamental. Secondly, the question of fuel subsidy, which the government says we cannot remove. But the government has just announced that 450,000 barrels of crude oil will be given to the Dangote refinery everyday, and the refinery will be asked to pay in Naira. The government must now sit down with the company. What is the implication of this opportunity being given to you with respect to the pump price of petroleum products in our country.
More so, the NNPL has announced that the two Port Harcourt refineries would come on board, will commence operations again in August, while Warri and Kaduna will commence operations in December, and this week that no less than 1.2 million barrels of crude oil will be refined in Nigeria daily. This government should be advised to ensure that those dates are not shifted again. And once you can do that, the crisis of importing fuel will be over, and then there will be more money in terms of the money being wasted now, billions of dollars to import will be set for development.
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