Kabiru Mato is a professor of Political Science and Director, Institute for Anti-Corruption Studies of the University of Abuja. He is a strong voice in northern politics. In an exclusive interview with Daily Sun in Abuja he came hard on former militant leader, Asari Dokubo over his recent statement that Nigeria will cease to exist if President Goodluck Jonathan is not reelected in 2015. According to him, that statement is a declaration of war on the Nigerian State, warning Jonathan to distance himself from Asari Dokubo as he has become a political liability.
Professor Kabiru further warned against any plans by serving and past political leaders to manipulate the 2015 elections. “People’s votes must count. Any attempt by people in or out of power to manipulate the will of the people will be met with serious consequences. If those in power want to use that opportunity to do anything wrong with the votes, it will be too bad for this country,” he warned.
Below is the full excerpts of the interview…
Battle against corruption
I think the most important thing to understand here is to know why there’s this high level of corruption in Nigeria. We should also consider the areas where they’re more prevalent. Is it in the public or private sector? My answer to this is that corruption is in both sectors. Corruption will thrive in the private sector if its endemic at the public sector level. What I mean here is that, the level of corruption in government has to do with those who are entrusted with running the affairs of the state. My attitude to corruption is that no government all over the world can completely stamp it out of its political landscape. But what other governments do is to reduce it to its lowest minimum. In our own case, it has become so unfortunate. Institutions that are supposed to fight corruption are being reduced by the same government that put these institutions in place. For instance, in the area of funding, you can’t fight corruption if you are allocated penury.
The people you’re fighting are in the public and private sectors, and they’ve tremendous wealth. This is democracy. If you’re trying to fight these people, they have resources at their disposal to fight back. The legal system is very expensive. For you to convict anybody, you have to convince the court that the individual or group of people are guilty. For you to do that, you need to go through rigorous legal process. The institutions fighting corruption in Nigeria are handicapped because they lack the financial capacity to effectively prosecute those accused of corruption. They don’t even have the funds to get sound lawyers or do proper investigation. This is fundamentally the problem. For instance, the two cases involving former governor of Delta State, James Ibori and former managing director of Intercontinental Bank, Erastus Akingbola are from the private and public sectors. Because of the amount of wealth they’ve acquired, they were able to clear all the charges of corruption against them.
As you can see, outside of Nigeria, they were tried in competent courts. It has been said that the British government spent £5 million in prosecuting James Ibori. If you translate that money into Naira, you realise that it is the budget of both the EFCC and ICPC. And that was what another government spent in prosecuting a case. Resources are scarce here and our own government can’t fund them. With deficit in the provision of infrastructure, the government can’t afford to channel so much resources into fighting corruption. I still believe the current state of funding is largely responsible for the poor successes anti-corruption agencies have been recording in their fight against corruption. I think the effort the government is putting in fighting corruption is below the mark.
Jonathan and Nigerians’ confidence
The truth of the matter is that most of the problems we face today in Nigeria aren’t the creation of President Jonathan or his administration. They’re problems that have accumulated over time. My attitude to this is that politicians must begin to realise that, when they’re aspiring to certain political offices, they should do so with the full consciousness that what they’re asking for are assets and liabilities. It isn’t all about driving in long convoys or enjoying the benefits of the office. It is also about the neglect of education, infrastructure, health sector and so many other things that have piled up over time to produce the kind of general state of insecurity and apathy that we’ve in Nigeria. The president who’s contesting for an election should be able to know the magnitude of these problems. It is not enough for anybody to say that he didn’t create these problems and therefore not the solution to the problem.
The fact of the matter is that Nigerians are at liberty to assess any government and that is the beauty of democracy. Nigerians are at liberty to assess Jonathan either as good or bad. This is what you can’t take away from Nigerians. Leadership must be able to take responsibility for actions. We elected the government and they should be able to create the enabling environment in helping Nigerians fulfill their common goals. What you have in Nigeria is a government that complains too much.
Dokumbo’s war threat
I don’t take people like Asari Dokumbo seriously. I don’t take them seriously because of their antecedents and not because they’re not Nigerians. Whatever people like that say shouldn’t mean anything. A sensible Nigerian will not come out and do what he’s doing. People like Asari are becoming political liabilities to President Jonathan instead of being political assets.
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