Southeast Leaders Causing Sit-at-home in the Region – Opara

Barrister Maxwell Opara is a prominent Nigerian lawyer known for his eloquence, courage and punchy truths. In a visit to Africa Health Report (AHR) Corporate Head Office in Abuja recently, he spoke on USAID’s withdrawal of funding to Nigeria and other African countries, the lingering sit-at-home in the Southeast, ex-President Ibrahim Babangida’s controversial book, and the suspension of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan from the National Assembly. AHR’s Editor, John Nwokocha brings excerpt

The sit-at-home exercise enforced by the IPOB/ESN in the South East region has lingered for too long, crippling the economy of the region. Why is it difficult for the government and other stakeholders to end it?

Southeast leaders are the problem. The governors who are the chief executive officers of their states know what to do. You can see what is going on in Anambra State, the sanitisation of the society, taking out ritualists, fake pastors, and native doctors. If a governor of a state wants to work, he will work. In any state that you find a crime that lasts for 48 hours, it is either the governor is an accomplice or is incompetent. The Igwes, councillors, local government chairmen are under the governor. What else does a governor want?

Why I don’t want to square on the federal government is because of the people of southeast, the religious leaders, the traditional rulers, the political rulers can play politics with it, because they felt that if Nnamdi Kanu is released, that they will all be silenced. That is errant nonsense. When Sunday Igboho was detained in Cotonou in Benin Republic, the Yoruba leaders set up a committee and they moved down there. Have you asked why Omoyele Sowore, who was facing the same charges as Nnamdi Kanu, had his own case withdrawn, and that of the president of Miyyetti Allah withdrawn too?   Kanu, who was agitating, was clamped down in prison. But Fulani herdsmen have not been proscribed. But IPOB that has been registered in almost all West African countries is being prescribed as a terrorist organisation.

What is your take on President Donald Trump’s controversial Executive Orders and particularly, the freezing of humanitarian aids to Africa?

Why should we ask for HIV drugs from another country? This is a right action by Trump. It is long overdue to withdraw all the aids so that we in Nigeria can reason like human beings. Also, God should cause our oil to dry up so that we can think normally.  They should withdraw all these things so that we can start reasoning like human beings.

Can you access it against the backdrop of the fake and counterfeit drugs everywhere? Can the ordinary man survive in this kind of condition?

Who is importing the fake drugs? I was in a market in Italy where some shoes were designated unsellable because they are expired. They were waiting for evacuation to Africa. I have not been to China yet, but I was told that our Nigerian socket specifications are being made over there with substandard materials and shipped back to us.  When they arrive at the wharf, you will see somebody who barely finished secondary school, who calls himself a controller, simply because his brother is the president of the country will approve its entry to the country. So who is bringing in fake drugs? Are they not Nigerians, and we are waiting for America to give you aids. America first is Trump’s mantra. We need Nigerians who will say Nigeria first.

When we were in Mexico for the IBA Conference, I told them that “IBA has not helped matters, International Bar Association, you people have not helped matters, why should you allow our president (Bola Tinubu) to be going for medical tourism in Paris, don’t we have a national hospital?

The America that you are going to live in, do you know how they were able to fight corruption and bad governance? Nobody can do it for us. When we do an election and somebody rigs the election, we should be able to come out, match to the streets against it.

You must have been following the controversies raised by the former military President General  Ibrahim Babangida’s book, ‘A Journey in Service’, recently launched. An aspect of the book seems to have corrected the distortions in our history as a country. Do you agree with this?

The people of the Southeast have not been moved by all these shenanigans. The Southeast has been growing in development notwithstanding all that. After the Nigerian civil war, Igbo men faced reality. So, when they discovered that the three Rs (Rehabilitation, Reconstruction, and Reconciliation) which the Head of State, Yakubu Gowon adopted were not being implemented, the Igbo men had to face realities. They left for Europe, Asia, America, and continued with their business and life. Now, that is yielding good results today.  And that is why there is no Igbo family that you cannot get three persons in Europe and America, and doing well in the aviation industry, football, among others. Then, come to Abuja, the Igbo man is contributing to the development of the FCT. There’s no local government that you will go to that you will not feel the presence of an Igbo man. But come to my local government, I doubt whether there is anybody from the North that has any investment there. The Igbo man is hardworking and enterprising.

What Babangida is saying is campaigning after the election. That’s how I see it, and on the issue of that particular statement he had made, some people are now saying the federal government should compensate the Igbos for the wrongs done to them. We don’t need any compensation. An Igbo man needs a conducive and peaceful environment to do his business. IBB said he annulled the June 12 election in the interest of Nigeria. So you rigged an election and you said it is in the interest of Nigerians. No. Somebody must go in for it. Go to Mexico, you see people that committed crimes, go to Spain, you see them, even though they’re in their 90s, they’re facing justice.

What is your take on the suspension of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan from the senate?

The Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges is the standing committee set up by the National Assembly to exercise its powers under section 62 of the 1999 Constitution. The Committee also asked Senator Natasha to appear before them, but incidentally, the Senator refused to appear before them in that there is a subsisting court order. Now there are some legal issues that we need to thrash out before delving into her suspension issue.

Does the court have the right to stop the National Assembly from carrying out their legislative duties? The answer no, because under the 1999 Constitution, Section 4,5, and 6 established each arm of government and we are talking about separation of power.

Are you saying that Natasha took a wrong step by going to court?

I won’t say that Natasha took a wrong step by going to court. But it was a wrong step for the judge to assume jurisdiction and also grant that application via parte. What stopped him from asking them to put it on notice? The question is for the National Assembly, do you have the right to overlook an order of the court served on you? No matter how worthless the court may appear, do you have the right as a National Assembly to ignore a court order? Because the constitution said every person must obey court order, no matter how frivolous you think the order is. Recall that the senate said that the application which she submitted is defective fundamentally in that under Order 40, rule 4 of Standing Rules of the Senate a senator cannot sign his or her own petition. What you should have done was to strike it out. And ask her to go put her house in order and come back.

Are you faulting the senate for suspending her?

I am a lawyer and as you are talking, people are watching what you are saying. Once there is an order against anybody, you should comply first.  You may have your reservation just like what happened in Rivers State.

Natasha had said her seat was changed and that she was speaking from a wrong seat. She tried to exercise her authority under Order 10, but they said no that she should go to her seat. The senate president has exercised his right under Order 6.  So, if you’re talking about other privileges, go to your seat, make your point, you refused. Now you have a case that you have been sexually harassed, allegedly, that the senate president made sexual advances to you. I didn’t follow the people that said why now, because there’s no expiration to crime. Now the question is, you belong to an institution which has rules, why should you go to the media first, what are you trying to say, what are you trying to do? And the senate felt insulted. Now you have gone there and presented a petition, and after that, you remembered to come back to do what you were supposed to do earlier. Now that you have done it, you signed your petition, and you are a lawyer Does it mean that you don’t have aides that will look at the rules. So, you quickly wrote the petition and submitted it. Remember I said that the Senate ought to have waited and gone to court to vacate the order and challenge the jurisdiction of the court before coming back. So, they shut their eyes against that court order. They went ahead, sat and met and presented their report in the general house, and Akpoti was suspended for six months. How will the court see them?  Because the matter is pending before the court. The question is, can’t the court set aside that suspension? I am not a lawyer to the parties.

With what you have explained, has the sex scandal affected the integrity of the Nigerian Senate?

I don’t want to use the word integrity.  Are we still talking about the word integrity, people have lost their minds, people have lost value for integrity. That is why you can see somebody who came fourth position in an election and you give him first position. It happened in this country. Somebody who never contested an election, and you gave him a ticket from somebody who contested. So, integrity for what? Somebody contested an election, the same ballot paper for the Senate and the Federal House of Representatives.  You announced one of the Senate and Federal House of Representatives and never announced that of the President, and we are here talking about integrity. We are a joke as far as the international community is concerned.

The crisis In the Senate directly or indirectly brings us to the unsolved issue of gender or women’s rights protection. You are a known advocate for women’s rights protection. How will you respond to this?

On March 5^th, I was at the ministry of women affairs to protest for a 4-year-old child whose biological father defiled. And I was also protesting for a 12 -year old girl who was raped and infected with HIV by two old men. I have been an advocate for women’s rights, and of course, anybody who has never thought of caring for a woman, if not any other thing, that person that took the risk on her own life, because you know that childbirth is 50/50.

The minister almost shed tears after hearing this ugly story. And, then said those two children should be cared and sheltered for under the ministry. They are making arrangements for those two children to be registered in school.  I have a lot of people working under me and I’ve been accused of taking care of my female staff more than the male staff.  And when we have matters, I will look for the matters in courts that are closer and I will give them to the women. If I give N30,000 to a male lawyer for an assignment, I give N35,000 to a female lawyer for the same job. I say, do you know how much their hair and make-up cost?