Olorogun Adelabu Ejiroghene Bodjor is the chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Delta Central Senatorial district. A lawyer and an astute politician, he is one of the great mind behind the emergence of APC in Delta State. He has been in the forefront of the party’s struggle to snatch the governance of the state from the ruling PDP. In this interview, Olorogun Bodjor reacted to national issues which are currently in the front burner. He however sued for peace and violent-free political campaigns and ultimately, the forthcoming election in Delta Central and the state in general.
Excerpts:
The visit of some notable personalities in company of the PDP’s presidential flag-bearer, Alh. Atiku Abubakar to former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo at his country home in Abeokuta, Ogun State recently appeared to have drawn the ire of President Muhammadu Buhari, who alleged that the visit was a gang-up against him. From your own perspective do you see it as such? If so, what is the substance of the gang-up?
Well, for me, I would term it a gang-up of deprived looters. You see, if you take a look at the personalities that accompanied Atiku Abubakar to visit former president Obasanjo, they are a crop of persons whose means of livelihood that have been depleting the economy of this country, have been stopped by Mr. President. And they are gripped with fear that another four years of depriving them of their looting ability will mean death to them. I tell you, they will gather but the God that is behind Nigeria and Nigerians will not allow them to gather and come back to loot this country dry again. So, it is a pure gang-up of wanting to come back and continue the plundering of the commonwealth of the Nigerian people. And for every reasonable Nigerian, nobody will pray for such reoccurrence again.
Although there appears to be some calms in the aftermath of APC primary in Delta State, but the same cannot be said of some other state. As an executive party man, what can you say actually went wrong between the National Working Committee of the party, the governor of Zamfara state and the INEC such that the list of the party candidates in that state is yet to be accepted by the electoral body as of today which is the deadline for such exercise?
Well, I think that INEC placed the cart before the horse. You don’t ask a man what he is going to say, rather you ask a man what has said. The deadline for the submission of list has not come and gone. The internal working mechanism of the party is only known to the party. It is not under the whims of INEC. The party has guidelines that control the primary exercise. It is either we go by consensus, direct or indirect. So, if Zamfara State and the national leadership of the party considered it expedient to use the first modality, that is consensus, and INEC is behaving as if they knew nothing about it, then it is left for them. It is the prerogative of the party to submit names of candidates to INEC. INEC does not select candidates for the party. It has no right to make the pronouncement that Zamfara State APC cannot participate in the coming election. And that is why the national chairman of the party keeps hammering that the party will fill candidates for Zamfara state. And they have already mentioned the names and those names will go in. If INEC thinks otherwise, then the courts will interprete.
So, what role does INEC play in the primary of the party?
The role of INEC is purely that of an observer. There is no such rule that provides that INEC MUST be present during the primary of parties. We should go and look at the Electoral Act. It is not there. So, the role which INEC is insisting on playing in the case of Zamfara state is circumspect. This is because we are suspecting that INEC is deliberately trying to rail-road our party into the hands of the opposition in Zamfara state and that we will resist with everything legally.
While the National Assembly was still in their two months recess, the national chairman of APC, Mr. Oshiomhole and some APC Senators had boasted that on resumption of sitting, the Senate president will be impeached. But surprisingly, upon resumption, the Senate and even the House of Reps became very calm with no one making any move for impeachment of the leadership of the two chambers. Why the sudden development of cold feet?
Well, you can see from the fall-out of the primary that a lot of Senators lost their return tickets. Being human beings, that has taken away the burning zest in them as far as that issue is concerned. They now look at the whole thing and say, ‘what is still there for me. Why continue to fight when I’m not going back’. Again, if you look at it carefully at the larger picture, we just have a few months to go. Why throw this country into a political imbalance? It is in the wisdom of APC to bend over back and ignore the ills of people like Saraki so that peace will reign for the remaining period of their tenure.
Do you see the continued stay of Saraki as Senate president doing any harm to the fortune of the APC in the forthcoming election?
For the past three and half years Saraki has been there doing all sorts of manipulations. But it has not gotten him anywhere. So, is it the few months remaining that he will be able to cause any damage? I see it as a futile exercise. This is because he also is fighting the battle of his life but I know he will not return back to the Senate.
Another national issue in the front burner at the moment is the Executive Order 6 by the President which seeks to place travel ban on 50 politically exposed Nigerians. Many Nigerians have condemned the order as a resurgence of military decree. As s lawyer what is your take on it?
EO6 is innovative. As a lawyer, we will always want to look at the books. But again, it goes beyond working by the books all the time. Sometimes these laws made by us for us should not take absolute control over our lives. We have seen so much damage and so much looting in this country such that some persons who are politically exposed used the same law as a means of escape. You will also agree with me that a lot of our laws need to be worked upon. The idea that the onus of proof rests on the person that alleges is being driven too far because you caught a thief red-handed in the scene of crime stealing and you are asking me the owner who is being represented by the prosecution to prove his culpability. It is debasing! A man just left the secondary school and has just worked for five years in a government ministry. He has suddenly become a billionaire. When you accost him on the source of his wealth, the law will say that the onus rests on you to prove. But this time, what EO6 is trying to say is that, I call you a thief, come and prove that you are not a thief. Let’s turn it round. That is the only thing that EO6 is seeking to bring out.
Does that not go contrary to the provisions of chapter four of the constitution?
That is what I’m telling you. I started by saying that as lawyers we will always want to go by the books but going by the books all the time has always kept us at a very bad spot. I made an example with a man whom you caught red-handed stealing your goat and the law is saying that the onus is you to come and prove that the man is a thief. But why can’t we turn it round to say, ok, I have caught with my goat, now tell me that you are not a thief who has the intention to steal my goat. I mean we should look at some of these laws with a holistic mind. If we continue to rely on some of these archaic legal doctrines, they we will continue to allow rogues, looters and demons to perpetrate evil in our system and get away with it.
Some lawyers have argued that EO6 is merely a duplication of the role of the judiciary and that when a person is arraign for a criminal offence his passport and other traveling documents are confiscated by the courts to prevent him from escaping prosecution. What is in your mind?
I don’t want to mention names, but the question I would like to ask is: how many of such persons whose passports are deposited with the courts have escaped from this country without passport? So many! So, when you make it clear that such a person should not leave the country, the border control will be aware that such a person cannot leave the country. His photographs will be pasted at the border posts and other places. But in the case of the courts, nobody knows what is happening. The border posts do not know that such a person’s travel documents have been seized by the court. And so, the man walks across the border because the border controllers are not aware that his passport has been deposited with the courts. So, I don’t see the EO6 as a duplication in any form. It has come to stay and for Nigerians who want the progress of Nigeria, let EO6 become operational.
Although it is being claimed that the APC primaries in Delta State have been concluded and of course, list of candidates have allegedly been submitted to INEC. But there seems to be some grumblings still ongoing by the sides. How can the APC house be put in order in preparation for the 2019 election in Delta State?
Perfection belongs to God. There is no political party anywhere in the world where everything is perfectly okay, even in the western world. There are acrimonies here and there, there are interests and there are tendencies. As far as APC in Delta State is concerned, we have decided to choose our best first election, we have put our best foot forward, you can see the man we picked as our governorship candidate. He is a man who can lead and win any time, any day on the ballot. And if you see the crop of men and women we have picked across board, you will know that APC is ready to take over the rein of governance in Delta State.
