Onofiok: Nigeria Needs Healing, Post-Election Reconciliation

Chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Judiciary, Hon. Luke Onofiok, in this interview with Udora Orizu speaks on salient issues including national judicial reforms and the need for the in-coming President to pursue post-election reconciliation as a way to move the nation forward.

You are chairman of house committee on judiciary and there is a saying about justice delayed is justice denied. We have had cases of having litigation spending years in court so much that sometimes, the person who is seeking redress might have died before the case ends. How do we address this issue because timely dispensation with cases in court, how do we achieve this?

 We have had this challenge at the different levels of the court, from the high court, the court of appeal and the Supreme Court and within this strata of the high court, the court of appeal and the Supreme Court, there are reasons.

But one thing runs through them, it is the manpower, in the sense that we have too many cases and we have fewer hands and that is why we sort the amendment of the federal high court law, sort the amendment of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria to increase the minimum number of judges of the federal high court.

We did the same by the bills that we proposed in the court of appeal to increase the minimum number from 90 to 150 and so that we can have those courts properly manned to be able to have more panels like, what we have in some divisions is that you have only a panel in some divisions.

And so we wanted a situation that we can have up to two or three panels in each of the divisions so that, even four panels in each of the divisions so that so that they can deal with these backlog of cases.

And then in the Supreme Court also, that of the Supreme Court is, how do we reform the processes of appeal to make sure that certain cases don’t get up to supreme court that certain cases are within the court of appeal and that is the court of final jurisdiction.

And we have tried to make such proposals and it seems not to sit well with certain segments of the society who insists that it is only when you have exhausted all the means of litigation to the Supreme Court that they can now be satisfied that they have really gotten justice. And so, one is, there is need away from the manpower, there is need for us to deploy technology massively in our courts.

And thank God for what the National Judicial Council is doing under the chairmanship of the CJN and then with the Executive Secretary Ahmed Gambo doing a great work with what we call the retrofitting of courts. If you go to certain courts, you have technology deployed in those courts and with COVID we learnt lessons that we can have virtual court sittings, virtual dispensation of justice.

Part of the challenges we have with some of the inmates in correctional centres who don’t get justice is that you have challenges with the correctional services in transporting those people to court. Excuse you will hear about accused persons is, we don’t have facility to bring them to court.

So with the deployment of technology today, we can take plea of accused persons on correctional centres and if we deploy that in all the courts, that will mean a major push in the angle of justice delivery and dispensation of quick and speedy justice.

And so we need to have more budget for the judiciary and then we need to deploy technology more in our court room to; if you go to some of the court rooms here in Abuja, you will see that retrofitting, you will see that technology being deployed but we are still lacking behind. And so there is need, we have this committee in the judiciary called the Judiciary ICT committee, they are doing a great work, I think it was headed by the chief judge of Borno state and that committee is doing a great work in partnership too with the National Judicial Council to be able to train, not only to deploy this technology, there is need for us to train the judicial officers in this technology.

The other one is that here we churn out legislations year in, year out and these legislations sometimes are subjects of adjudication in court.

Meanwhile we have not put in adequate efforts to train the judicial officers on this legislation.

I like what the National Shippers Council and the National Judicial Council and the National Judicial Institute have been doing, in partnership, in training judges, having their annual judge’s maritime conference to get the judges, judicial officers abreast with the current position of the law, with the current international best practices in maritime sector.

And I have proposed this even for the PIA that we passed, so that the judicial officers can be abreast of events. Can there be a partnership between the NNPC Limited and the National Judicial Institute in the training of judicial officers in the new regime in the petroleum sector?

 Even in the electoral act, I am happy that the CJN and the National Judicial Council were able to organize some training for judicial officers in the electoral act so that issues don’t become new. So there are a lot of things but the greatest thing we need is funding to be able to get this to happen and that is why I have been advocating, asking for a special intervention fund for the judiciary. We have intervention fund for the entertainment industry, we have special intervention fund for other sectors of the economy, because of the dearth on infrastructure, a normal yearly budgetary allocation will not cure this infrastructural deficit in judiciary and so we need a special intervention fund, one off fund of about 150 or 200 billion naira for the judiciary to be able to enable judiciary put things in place to meet its target.

How would you describe the conduct of the 2023 general election?

Now, I want to say this and emphatically so. We would not be where we are today, the problem we have today, the anger and post election outcome is caused by INEC.

And for one single reason, doublespeak. Doublespeak. That is where the problem lies. Now no matter what would have happened using where I voted, using the things that happened within my domain, elections were quite peaceful. Now people were awaiting the manifestation of INEC’s promises of uploading results in IREV in real time, which INEC prior to now had assured Nigerians.

I can remember sometime around November when there were rumours that INEC wants to jettison some of the things that they promised, they came out boldly to refute it and assured Nigerians that results are going to be uploaded real time online.

Now the anger of Nigerians is the inability for whatsoever reason for INEC to upload those results realtime online. Now what people are saying is that they want a reflection of what we voted on ground. That is where the problem lies. The electoral act has helped us in the last election a bit in the sense that it would curb excessive violence, relatively and comparatively with what used to happen.

It curbed a whole lot of ballot box snatching, it curtailed if at all it happened ballot papers stuffing and thumbprinting. That is why you could see the numbers, then you see a place where they say about 8, 000 people collected voters card and then you see the actual voting in that place is about 2000 to 3000 reflecting the exact voting strength of that voting area whether it is a ward or a local government or is a state or federal constituency, or senatorial district.

And so INEC had followed the electoral act and part of the things I beat my chest for, to God be all the glory that I am part and parcel of an assembly that brought some of the reforms in the electoral process to bring in some level of credibility and transparency.

So for me, they did everything nice, at a certain point ensured the working of BVAS, ensure the availability of BVAS, ensure timely arrival of voting materials and then ensure that tested hands were used as adhoc staff, but at the point of collation and uploading of results is where INEC missed it and that is where everybody is having challenges.

But for me, a winner has emerged and cases are in court. Let us allow the law and constitution to take its course. Let us now turn our energy to the courts and allow the government to function.

I am part of the people that are kicking against the interim government. It will not portend any good for us. Let the president- elect be sworn in and start his administration and let the courts do justice.

Whatsoever is the outcome, we have to begin a healing process. This country has been divided. And we talked about INEC and the outcome of this electoral process. We keep talking about trust deficit on the part of Nigerians and now how do we expect Nigerians to continue to have trust in us, when we say one thing and do the other.

The problem today is that trust is nose diving. We are going to the highest level of trust deficit in governance because of the doublespeak of the political class.

You mentioned the healing process. It has to start, now want to ask you questions on the formation of leadership of the 10th assembly, even though you are not going to be part of it. Where would you want the pendulum to swing to in your own estimation?

The post-election comments by political actors are not helping the healing of this country on all sides. We should minimize such comments. They are very inciting and those comments are sometimes very hurtful and they lack decency. I wonder what they would tell their children with the kind of political communications they come on radio and TV to spew. It does not encourage growth.

Let us rally around the president-elect. Asiwaju Tinubu has emerged as the president elect. I am an absolute believer in the will of God. It is the will of God that he has emerged. Let’s rally around him and see how we can make the country move on and become better. And then those who are pursuing cases in court let us allow Atiku, Kwankwaso, Obi, Sowore and the rest to continue to pursue the election petitions at the court.

But let us begin to put our hands together and move this country forward. We are in a crisis. Our reputation is not good in the international community and we have domestic issues, economic issues.

These issues need to be addressed as soon as possible. We have challenges in the health, security, education sectors. We have challenges with the economy and the oil and gas sector. Let us see how we can pull ourselves from this crisis and rally around the president elect and move forward and then allow the cases to go on in court. I am not a member of the APC but I am a Nigerian.

I want peace. I want us to move forward as a country

Then you talked about the National Assembly healing. First I don’t like making religious comments publicly because it is a very sensitive issue in this country but as somebody of a Christian faith who believes in my faith just like I respect the faith of others, I think it is fair and just. God did not make a mistake in bringing all of us in this country. God brought us together ethnic wise, religious wise to cooperate and co-exist as one. So if we have had a Muslim Muslim ticket, right now the position of the Senate President should go to a Christian. Let us have the number three position in this country to go to a Christian.

Why am I saying so, I did not accept that Muslim Muslim ticket as a person because while for example, during independence anniversary or during national events, today while President Buhari would go for Jumaat service, we the Christian would have the opposite to go and gather with Prof Yemi Osinbajo in the chapel in the villa.

Like when he invited us for Christmas, concerts, or invite us for Easter service. That gives us a sense of belonging in our national polity. Now if we do not have that in the emerging political scenario, let us have senate president, the number three position that Nigerians Christians would be able to gather.

For me not only that. I have a bias concerning that because I need it to come from South South. Then I have a bias too because when I hear people talk about bias I say let us look at competence. You need to balance the interest of the legislature and executive to be a better leader of the legislature.

You need to know what the executive thinks and what they want. You need to know what the legislature wants. What the state wants. What the federal wants. By the grace of God we have a man who has been the former governor of a state, two term governor, a performing Governor. We call him the uncommon transformer. We have a man who had been a member of the Federal Executive Council.

So he knows the workings of the executive. We have a man who has been a commissioner in the state before, so he knows the relationship between the chief executive and the members of the executive. We have a man who has been a minority leader of the senate as a first timer. And then a cool headed man. A man who is jovial. So what would we be asking for? Let South South be given this opportunity to produce the Senate President in the person of Senator Godswill Akpabio.

When you come to the House of Representatives, this is my thinking. Those contesting for the Speakership have good credentials. They are bringing good credentials to the table. Is it the deputy speaker Ahmed Wase, Betara, good credentials, Gagdi, good credentials.

And talking about credentials according to the persons I have worked with. And then you talk about contenders and pretenders. So you look at others, Gagdi, Sada Soli.

All I am saying in essence is that the ones I have interacted with have good credentials including Tajudeen Abbas, the man towering with the credentials for the dynamics and complexities of the 10th House of Reps is Tajudeen Abbas. Why do I say so.

First, look at his educational background. He has a doctorate degree. He is well schooled and educated. Secondly, there are three major responsibilities and functions of a legislator. One is lawmaking, second is oversight. Third is representation. Now take lawmaking.

Today Tajudeen Abbas has the highest number of bills in the House. I think about 70. Out of that 21 of those bills have been assented to by the President. That means he lives, sleeps, and thinks legislative business. And so for you to become a better manager of the legislature as a Speaker, you must be a better legislator yourself and you know what it means to turn out good legislation.

In terms of representation, his people in his constituency respect him and see him as humble and down to earth. Then in terms of oversight functions he is a member of the committee on judiciary and part of the strength we have had and part of the motions and bills we have is because of most of his contributions. So he has what it takes. Moreover the northwest should be able to produce. I am not of that party. The party has what it takes but for me, the man with the towering credentials is Tajudeen Abbas.

Why do I talk about the complexities of the 10th House? What are the complexities of the 10th National Assembly?

One, is that you have that assembly having more new members than returning members. Why are we able to make the little successes we have been able to make even as first timers is because we have a Speaker in Femi Gbajabiamila, who became like a coach.

He gave the new members an opportunity to express the views of their constituencies and make mistakes and get to correct them and give the opportunity for them to have a sense of belonging.

Not really causing a divide between ranking members and new members. And that is what has given us opportunity, new members were chairmen of committees. Who would have thought that somebody like me would have become the chairman of the judiciary committee as a new member. A first timer. But Femi Gbajabiamila, gave that attitude and even the deputy speaker when he presided. So this is why the new members that are coming, the members elect should be able to look at someone who would give them such an opportunity. Like most times members would raise matters of urgent public importance that have far exceeded what we should take on the floor, but because the Speaker sees the passion of that member or members to contribute to national growth, discourse and development through their motions, he would now ask for the House rules to be relaxed so that more matters of urgent public importance can be taken.

He allowed members to bring issues of their constituencies to bear.

The person that has the temperament, humility, that has the education, that has the understanding to manage the House now is Hon Tajudeen Abbas.