Barely 37 days to the assumption of office of President-elect, Maj Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, human rights lawyer and former President, Nigerian Bar Association, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, Wednesday, said the time is ripe to set out a framework to address broad issues concerning Nigeria, which according to him, majorly bothers on lack of constitutional order and endemic corruption in the country.
Agbakoba, who spoke at a press conference in Lagos tagged “Setting a new Agenda for the President-elect on National Order, Constitutional Reform, Devolution of Powers, Anti-corruption, Diversification of the Economy, Driving new Public Revenue, Maritime, Space, Aviation and some other issues,” said Buhari must live up to the trust Nigerians reposed on him, immediately he assumes office, noting that he has to be held to account for all the campaign promises he made.
Ex-President of the Nigerian Bar Association and human rights activist, Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, in this interview with Saturday Vanguard maintains that Nigeria is a sick patient in the accident and emergency ward which requires an orthopedic President who will crack the structure and heal it just as he berates the two major political parties, APC and PDP for not providing an answer to this dilemma. Excerpts:
Recent developments in the polity suggest that anarchy is lurking, what is your take on the possibility of violence during and after the elections?
There won’t be violence. Nigeria is a country that is full of sound and fury which signifies nothing. People make a lot of noise about the issue of violence during and after election. It is because we don’t have institutional memory to remember past issues. But when an issue is on the table, we focus our mind on it as if all our lives depend on it.
There is not going to be any problem. Somebody will lose and somebody will win. What I can say is that whoever wins, whether Buhari or Jonathan, there will be outcry, but there won’t be a repeat of 2011 where there was a lot of violence in the north. This is because we are more conscious of preventing violence. The awareness now is higher than before. The victory of either of them is not going to surprise us. It is not going to come as shock if any of them loses.
