Barrister Jiti Ogunye, a constitutional lawyer and public affairs analyst, is the Principal Counsel, Jiti Ogunye Chambers. In this interview with TEMIDAYO AKINSUYI, he spoke on the gale of defections, National Assembly, and other issues. Excerpts:

What do you think of the gale of defections going on among political parties in the country today?

Absolutely nothing! The average Nigerian and indeed the entire Nigerian people stand to benefit nothing from the gale of opportunistic, promiscuous, immoral defections as I call them. Let’s put it generally. In this clime, politicians have a fixation on power because political power is central in prevailing circumstances in our country to primitive accumulation of capital. So they are not in the business of power, rather they are in power for business. In other words, they see political power as an opportunity for them to build war chest, amass illicit wealth and then enhance their economic and social standings in the society. They are not in politics for service, they are in politics to make ends meet and to build empires for themselves. Therefore, they are perpetually concerned with what can guarantee as a platform, their access to power. So, it is not about politics of ideology, it is not about politics of principle, it is not about politics of programmes , policies and manifesto, it is about raw power and how to gain and wield that raw power. So, there is usually no fidelity to high principles. They can be in a political party in the morning, they move to another one in the afternoon, move to another one in the evening or return to the one they are fleeing from in the morning. For them, there is no fidelity to any political party. Their only allegiance is to themselves and their selfish pursuit for power. So that’s why for now and a foreseeable future, as far as Nigeria is burdened with this tribe of politicians, we will continue to see these movements across political parties. We will continue to see politicians criss-crossing political parties, particularly towards the general election for them to position themselves so that they can achieve their political ambition. I believe political ambition is legitimate. Tenacity, perseverance and long-suffering for a cause are virtues. So nobody is crucifying Nigerian politicians for their seeming consistency. Rather, what we decry and condemn is this desperate quest for power that does not take into consideration political morality.

Why do you say that?

It is because it is immoral for you as a politician not to have principles, ideals. Societies that have succeeded in the world have succeeded on the basis of ideals, sound principles, values, integrity and loyalty to a cause; not on the basis of flip-flops or on the basis of opportunism. Hardly can you identify Nigerian politicians with a set of principles or ideals, that this is a welfarist party, this is a conservative party, this is a party of liberal democrats or this is a socialist party’. Those lines are flawed in Nigeria. All that is important is that ‘I want to occupy an office and as a Southerner, it is our turn. I am a Northerner, it is our turn’. It is the turn of the South- South; it is the turn of the South- East or North- West’. That is all they say. Even within states broken into three senatorial districts. The Nigerian political elite threw up the dubious address to federal character principles as if they are a signification of a federal character principle. In other words, they project themselves as representing the people. That it is the slot of their people they are taking. It is the turn of their people. All these jejune arguments they throw up in order to corner power. When they corner that power, they hardly use it for the public good. So, what is going on is not beneficial to the Nigerian people. However, and this is paradoxic. It may without such intention from the political class benefit the Nigerian people by default. Because the Nigerian people will now be made to see the dirty rump of this political class, see them in their stark unclothedness and realising that they’ve never been with the people. They’ve always been for themselves and therefore, they are more or less, the same tribe of people. This will now enable the Nigerian people to now seek real and genuine alternatives outside the current crop of tribes of these politicians, such that we can now have a credible alternative. Unlike the two sides of the same coin, the three parts of the same trinity that we’ve always had. So, in a way the political class is cutting its nose to spite its face in that sense. The Nigerian people have started realising that these politicians and the ease with which they move from one political party to another indicate that they are part of the same family of oppressors, part of the same gang of anti- people elements and that therefore; political salvation and economic revival can’t come from these politicians. Nigerians may now be forced to start looking in other directions and that may help the country in the long run.


The APC is insisting that Senate President Bukola Saraki will be removed when the House reconvenes. What is your perspective on that?

My view is simply this: follow the Rule of Law. If you follow the Rule of law, there won’t be any problem. The APC is hell-bent on changing the leadership of the Senate on account of the defection of the Senate President. They are boasting that they have the requisite number and that they will do it democratically, the requisite number being 73 out of 109 senators. The constitutional prescription is that the leadership of the senate and the House of Reps can only be impeached by two thirds of majority of its members. Some people have been doing some funny interpretations, playing with words and using semantics such as ‘Oh, that provision doesn’t say all its members. It is only those who are present on the floor of the House’. That is not my own understanding of the Law. Two third majority means a majority of all the members. As at the time the Senate leadership was constituted in June 2015, only 64 members of the entire House were there. When that aberration occurred, I wrote a beautiful piece which was circulated worldwide on the illegality of the senate presidency of Bukola Saraki and deputy senate presidency of Ike Ekweremadu. I also offered solid reasons, including the fact that to constitute that leadership, you need ALL the members, except those who are sick and they will be few. The argument that ‘Oh, they knew the time but they chose to go for a meeting’, that was rather sinister. So, what I expected those who are now talking about this leadership to do then was to insist that having been disenfranchised by an act of omission or commission on the critical question of constituting the senate leadership, they will want to participate in the constitution of the senate leadership. And if that struggle have even taken the entire life of the 8th senate, it will be a worthy cause. It will not be correct to now latch on to the illegality and unconstitutionality of that time to make the point now that you can also achieve a removal unconstitutionally. That is a very dubious argument. I am not going to offer any advice on whether the senate president should resign or whether the APC should remove him because if you go back to my fundamental premise, I have stated that politicians are always angling for political power so there is no morality in that issue. In any case, the APC that is talking about removal now, what happened within their ranks in the National Assembly for almost three years now? The senate president was playing a chess game with them. Kabiru Marafa was one of the most outspoken critics of Saraki but the Senate President reshuffled the committees and made him (Marafa) the Chairman of Petroleum Downstream. That was the end of his criticisms. So, it is not useful for Nigerians to just queue sheepishly behind politicians and helping them achieve their selfish aims. So, if they wake up and say ‘wake up Nigerians, then we start waking up. If tomorrow, they say ‘we need to have a siesta now and so Nigerians must start sleeping, then we start sleeping’. We are not dummies. How they are going to sort out the issue of the senate leadership is their own problem. All Nigerians must insist on is that they must follow the Rule of law.

https://independent.ng/national-assembly-should-stop-seeing-itself-as-parallel-government-ogunye/

I know

SARAKI must be impeach ether with two third or not, SARAKI can go to court if he is not satisfied with the impeachment.

The way roads take bad for lagos mainland no be here o.

Big big potholes just anywhere you can imagine, express way, inside street etc.

This country no dey improve 1%

yarimo:
SARAKI must be impeach ether with two third or not, SARAKI can go to court if he is not satisfied with the impeachment.

cry cry baby go and impeach him na? Even our dearest ekuke dog have lost his voice.