Mr Femi Falana is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and human rights lawyer. In this interview monitored on Channels Television, he speaks on the recent #EndBadGovernance protest and the lingering fuel scarcity, among other issues, FELIX NWANERI brings the excerpts
How would you assess the recent #EndBadGovernance protest?
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.
Some of us were also involved in the struggle for the democratization as it were. 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’ve had 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 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 mean the Federal Government alone and that is why my organisation 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, to be out of school. That is the figure that UNICEF gave and over 60 percent of that figure can be located in the North.
What do you figure out could have brought the international dimension, where we saw foreign flags being flown in our country among other daring actions by the protesters?
The Russian flag that was hoisted or taken around could be traced to the crisis in Niger Republic. As far as many of these guys are concerned, and I’m talking of the conscious elements that introduced this dangerous dimension to the protest, I think what they were 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, Burkina Faso and Mali.
Since Russia is the main backer of these 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 were calling for outright military rule in our country, a very dangerous call. But again, the Russian government, through its embassy in Nigeria said, they had 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 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 the state governments what they do with the monies they receive….
It is important to recognise 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 governments and state governments.
In June last year, 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 N1 trillion. 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 N112 billion 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 and Kaduna states did not partake in the N438 billion because the agency in charge of disbursing the money said they were still expecting the reports of previous disbursements from the two states.
So, we are talking of 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory, having received N438 billion to fight poverty. 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 states, I was abused by one of the presidential asides.
I think one Tope Ajayi came out to lambast me, saying that I was exaggerating the figure. Now, happily, the Federal Government has 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 N135 billion 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 government 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 N4 billion 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.
What is the evidence of these monies in real time?
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.
That is not to talk about the monthly statutory allocations 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.
What do you consider as the big lesson learnt from the #EndBadGovernance protest?
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 it with respect to the pump price of petroleum products in our country.
More so, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Ltd (NNPCL) has announced that the two Port Harcourt refineries will commence operations again in August, while Warri and Kaduna will commence operations in December.
This government should be advised to ensure that those dates are not shifted again. 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.