AS ECONOMIC hardship bites harder on Nigerians, Makurdi-based legal practitioner, human rights activist and author, Emmanuel Ominyi, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to restore fuel subsidy regime in order to stabilise the economy and make cost of living affordable for working people.
In this interview with National Record’s correspondent, Amos Aar, and his colleague correspondents in The Prime Newspaper and Brothers FM, Makurdi, Ominyi interrogated many other issues including the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) affecting Nigeria and proffered remedies to the challenges. Excerpts:
Question: May we meet you?
Ominyi: Thank you for having me. My name is Emmanuel Ominyi, Esq., I’m a human rights activist, author and principal partner of Rehoboth Chambers International, Makurdi.
Question: Nigeria is facing serious economic challenges with many of her citizens waking up and going to bed on empty stomach. What is your comment on this economic hardship in the country under President Tinubu’s administration?
Ominyi: Let me start by saying that the essence of government in any nation, in any country, in any state, in any local government is for the purpose of the welfare and security of the masses. That is what is provided for by the constitution. So, looking at the economic insecurity of the nation now, let me put it that way, the masses are suffering, people are mourning, people are groaning, people are in a state that is totally pitiable.
Money has failed in Nigeria. The kind of inflation that we have now, we have never had that kind of inflation in history. People are working for government, their salaries have not been increased for many years and even their salaries that were meager, that were not enough for them is now going for something two times ten (2×10) lower than what they used to get without that salary. It is not proper; it is wrong and it is unacceptable in a democratic dispensation where the view of the masses is supposed to be the order of the day.
Question: So, are you saying the solution to this problem is to increase the salary of workers?
Ominyi: Not the increment of salaries of workers alone. There must be a rejigging and overhaul of many things, beginning with, let me say that Nigeria is supposed to operate what is called mixed economy in which case, some things are supposed to be subsidised. Money is not supposed to be the driving force and that is the characteristic of capitalism. The government is supposed to help in some areas while other areas, the government is not supposed to help.
So, the ways to go are as follows: number one; there has to be a reintroduction of subsidy regime on fuel. Secondly; if Nigeria is making so much money, I call for free education in Nigeria because free education is one of the ways that will enhance a holistic rejigging of the society; the children of the poor, the children of the wealthy, the children of the middle class will benefit from education. Education is an equalizer; education is a ladder that takes people from one level to another.
Like the case of Nigeria now, the removal of fuel subsidy is what has caused the economic holocaust to the masses because if Nigeria that principally produces oil and the masses who are supposed to enjoy the oil cannot have the oil again, that’s the fuel now, and they are paying heavy amounts of money to get this thing; it is unacceptable, it is bad and it is condemnable.
I can tell you, if you increase the salary of workers alone without rejigging that area, without handling it from that area, it is not going to be sufficient. When you look at the population of Nigeria, not more than 20 percent are workers for government. So, it is not only about those who are working for government, the private constitutes about 70-80 percent of the population of Nigeria. So, what about those who are in the private sector?
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So, the ways to go are as follows: number one; there has to be a reintroduction of subsidy regime on fuel. Secondly; if Nigeria is making so much money, I call for free education in Nigeria because free education is one of the ways that will enhance a holistic rejigging of the society; the children of the poor, the children of the wealthy, the children of the middle class will benefit from education. Education is an equalizer; education is a ladder that takes people from one level to another.
I’m surprised whether our economists are not doing what they are supposed to do. Nigeria has a lot of scholars who should do a lot of things, but maybe, some of them, their wisdom is not used or maybe, their wisdom is not proper enough. So, if economic policies that are introduced are not working, they should be changed. The best thing in life is to have result in what you are doing. They say wisdom is known by its fruits. Any decision you take that is not benefiting the masses, it is not profiting the masses, it is rather bringing poverty, it is impoverishing people, then, that decision has to be changed. If you do not change it, then you are going to be in chains. It did not take President Bola Ahmed Tinubu more than 24 hours to introduce the subsidy change regime. So, why are we in this trouble almost a year now?
For instance, it is only in the classroom that you will see the son of a senator with the son of a mere pauper. So, what is needed to be done is return fuel subsidy and secondly, I call for education sector to be subsidised.
Thirdly, I call for Nigeria to be industrialised. Let me also say the education sector is not developing our country very well. We are having a kind of education that is not functional in Nigeria. How can a professor be looking for money? A professor who is teaching knowledge is not supposed to be looking for money. He is supposed to be a creator of knowledge and creator of wealth.
That is why one of the greatest writers that I admire, Robert Kiyosaki, said rich dad poor dad. He was a professor by name but very poor. The kind of education that is offered in Nigeria, I can tell you, is not good enough.
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Let me say this again so that you will understand. In the past, people who were not going to school are taught what we called handiwork. That is what is referred to today as entrepreneurship. People finish from university today only to go back to learn handiwork by entrepreneurship… [laughs], and you have gone to the university! After finishing from the university, then they begin to teach you how to make Vaseline, they teach you how to sew, they teach you how to do reporting, these are things that we’re supposed to be doing while in the university, it is not after graduation.
There is a saying that he who pays the piper dictates the tune and that is why we are agitating so much for the independence of the judiciary. The independence of the judiciary is the way to go. But I can tell you, it is coming gradually. More judges, more justices are rendering decisions that are better than before but we have not reached Canaan land yet.
So, we need to rejig our kind of education; education that will be productive; education that will be smart – smart solutions should be employed. That is one of the ways to go.
Again, there should be salary increment for workers and after that, people like you, who are the press men, people who are the conscience of the society, the conscience of the masses, need to be encouraged or motivated so that you can speak for the masses. But when you are stultified, when you are strangulated by way of deprivation, it is wrong. That is where and how we are having issues in Nigeria.
Question: In the course of this hardship, some people are calling for price control of commodities and goods. As a legal practitioner, can you tell us the legal implication of this?
Ominyi: Yes, of course, in one breath, the law provides for price control and if there is price control, the economy is not supposed to be totally free again. The issue of dollar has been causing trouble. Before, when I was young, we talked about naira, naira, naira, which is our currency, naira and kobo. But today, we hear of dollar and naira as if dollar is our currency. It’s not supposed to be so.
I’m surprised whether our economists are not doing what they are supposed to do. Nigeria has a lot of scholars who should do a lot of things, but maybe, some of them, their wisdom is not used or maybe, their wisdom is not proper enough. So, if economic policies that are introduced are not working, they should be changed. The best thing in life is to have result in what you are doing. They say wisdom is known by its fruits. Any decision you take that is not benefiting the masses, it is not profiting the masses, it is rather bringing poverty, it is impoverishing people, then, that decision has to be changed. If you do not change it, then you are going to be in chains. It did not take President Bola Ahmed Tinubu more than 24 hours to introduce the subsidy change regime. So, why are we in this trouble almost a year now?
Nigerians are suffering, Nigerians are wailing, not because they are losing their people so to say. But I can tell you, a lot of people who are dying as a result of this economic hardship are more than the number of people that are being killed by bullet, arms and ammunition. In every family, people are dying of high blood pressure.
The regime of subsidy removal failed because it was not properly planned. Nobody does university education before primary education. Tinubu brought subsidy without putting in place the needed things. That is why the impact is so heavy. For instance, if you are driving a very good car and there is going to be an accident, God forbid, if you have seatbelt and airbag, it will reduce the impact. That is what he was supposed to put on ground before removing subsidy.
For instance, a man who used to earn one hundred and fifty thousand naira (N150,000), that money, maybe, it was not sufficient for him then. But what N150,000 could buy now is what thirty or forty thousand could buy then. You can see the trouble! You are not misusing your money but your money cannot do what it used to do and things are increasing.
Look at schools, the amount of money as tuition fee before has been suddenly increased. The autonomy, why are you giving autonomy firstly to the universities so that professors can be lawless? I can tell you the autonomy of an institution is unacceptable if you are giving autonomy and say university should be an elitist program for those who are wealthy, for those who are okay, then the government of the day should not be giving subvention to the universities. That’s the way to go. If you say you are giving autonomy, let it be for the well-to-do. Okay, if I’m wealthy, I can send my son to the university, that is it. It’s just like nobody is forcing you to send your son to abroad or to send your daughter abroad. That one is elitist. It shows us what is called the law of exceptional demand. People go for what is higher in price than what is lower in price.
Question: So, now, the price control that the federal government is trying to introduce, as a legal practitioner, with the high rate of inflation, do you think government’s pronouncement of price control can work?
Ominyi: It can work, but it may not work. It can work if the government begins it from the things they are importing. If the government, for instance, what they are supposed to bring into Nigeria for N150 billion; are you following? Now, under price regime, if the government is bringing it for N8 billion and if it is subsidised at that level, the price regime can work. But if you allow individual persons to cough out their hard-earned money and they bring it and you want to do price control; you are only a joker. That is why I said it can work, but it may not work. It depends on how it is worked upon. Planning is the greatest tool in life; if you don’t plan, then, you will fail.
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The regime of subsidy removal failed because it was not properly planned. Nobody does university education before primary education. Tinubu brought subsidy without putting in place the needed things. That is why the impact is so heavy. For instance, if you are driving a very good car and there is going to be an accident, God forbid, if you have seatbelt and airbag, it will reduce the impact. That is what he was supposed to put on ground before removing subsidy.
I want to use this opportunity to also talk about NLC [Nigeria Labour Congress]. In all your questions you have not talked about NLC here. Before, NLC used to be a body that controls the actions of government. But today, NLC has gone to sleep. If NLC is awake, we would not be where we are, we would not be talking about the court, we would be talking about our leaders.
For instance, if we have our own refineries that were producing and there is going to be no issue of dollars, this thing would have worked. But because there was nothing like that, dollar that used to be N300 to a dollar, now dollar is almost N2000. You can see the impact, that’s why Nigeria is now wobbling, Nigeria is now like a car that has lost its brake. Economist have failed, lawyers are doing their best but a lot of things are not yet best because of a lot of forces.
Question: The issue of caretaker committee members appointed by various states in the country is something that has worried many people. Instead of allowing the elected people to take over the control of the council, the governors have seen it as a way of enriching themselves therefore, caging the development at the rural level. What is your take on that issue sir?
Ominyi: Let me say that the issue of caretaker committee is becoming a norm in our democratic dispensation. But it is improper, it is undemocratic. There is nowhere in the constitution that caretaker committee is provided for. Section 7 of the constitution that makes provision for local government administration does not make provision for caretaker administration. It talks only about a democratically elected government, a government that is elected by the masses. But today, what we are having is unelected but appointed government where even elected local government chairmen, their tenures are terminated by various governors.
That is what we are having and that takes us to the idea of also the court. Many times, these decisions have been challenged and I can tell you, most times most judges are very courageous, they are very bold to pronounce it as illegal. But how many times had the litigants been able to pursue those issues? But some judges surprisingly are unable to be courageous to decide the law properly. That is also another quagmire in the legal profession.
Question: So, what is responsible for the actions of these judges; why are not not bold enough to judge cases the way they are supposed to be?
Ominyi: Well, let me say that human behaviour is not a predictable behaviour. When you have ten human beings, you are likely to have different views not less than four or five from those ten persons. Are you following? There will be some consensus. So, the same way it applies to judges.
Even when we see law expressly, some judges do not decide the way the law is, maybe for some reasons that are not known. That is why I commend the wisdom of the law drafters that provide for what we call appellate court because for instance, if you go, you file a matter at the high court and the high court judge does not decide the matter in a proper way, you go to court of appeal and if you go to court of appeal and the court of appeal does not decide in the way you want, you go to the supreme court.
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Like I told you before, look at some decisions in the election-related matters where some election tribunals render some decisions that were very good, those decisions that were upheld at the court of appeal and some also went to supreme court and were upheld. But why others were decided at the election tribunal and when they went to election tribunal, those decisions were reversed and others went to supreme court and they were reversed, some went to the court of appeal they were also reversed.
NLC and TUC, Trade Union Congress, the two bodies are supposed to work together to ensure that everything is in order. But when they call, for instance, ASUU members, to Aso Rock, they come out without smiling. But when they call NLC and TUC, what happens? They come out smiling, showing 32 or their own is even seventy-something. So, you can imagine it.
Sometimes some people are influenced. That is one of the reasons. I will not say corruption like so many people say cannot be ruled out because people say some judges are corrupt. Corruption does not necessarily mean taking of money. Corruption means perversion. When you change what is A to B, you have already corrupted the system. That is corruption! Where the law says this and you do another, that is corruption, that is pervasion, and that is one of the troubles and it also goes down to how those judges are appointed and elevated.
There is a saying that he who pays the piper dictates the tune and that is why we are agitating so much for the independence of the judiciary. The independence of the judiciary is the way to go. But I can tell you, it is coming gradually. More judges, more justices are rendering decisions that are better than before but we have not reached Canaan land yet.
Question: Now that the judiciary is yet to start enjoying independence, can the judiciary intervene for the common man in the face of this economic hardship by prevailing on the federal government to stop it?
Ominyi: Yes, let me say this. Pathetically speaking, the issue of economy is not one of the areas under the constitution for enforcement in court of law. We call them non justiciable rights to citizens; they are not the rights that you can enforce. So, when you go to court, they will use some terms like you lack the locus standi and this matter is not enforceable in the court of law.
The court will say while it is sorrowful, while it is pathetic that something like this is happening, there is nothing they can do. I can tell you that currently, as we speak, Femi Falana, one of the foremost lawyers, one of my mentors, I can say from a distance, has taken up a legal action so that there should be invocation of price control, the law. Let me see how far that is going to fly.
Question: Still on the judiciary; recently, the Supreme Court delivered judgments from lower courts on election tribunals which many people regarded as improper, like the governorship cases from Nasarawa, Kaduna, and that of Plateau. As a layman, we see that the rights of the people had been truncated by the Supreme Court. As a professional, what do you think; is the judiciary on the right path?
Ominyi: Yes, I can say that judiciary is on the right path. No two ways about it, but the judiciary has not done its best. Being on the right path is different from doing your best. You can be on your way to Abuja and be driving anyhow while still on the way. I don’t think the judiciary has done its best on the course of justice. If not for the judiciary, I think we may have had a lot more troubles in this country than what you are seeing here. Let me give two or three instances to illustrate.
Ordinary persons should know that it’s not only judges that make mistakes. Sometimes it’s what you present. For instance, let me tell you; biologically, you cannot donate sperm that is a female sperm and expect the woman to give you a boy. It is the same thing that happens in law; garbage in garbage out. So, if you give what is wrong to judges, you cannot expect what is right. Because in what we call adversarial system of justice, the judge is not supposed to go outside what you have presented to him or her. So, that is one area.
When the decision in Kano State was rendered by the Court of Appeal, I told my lawyers that that decision was the worst that can be rendered. The issue of nomination of candidates, the issue of political party in which you contest under, does not come under election petition but they used that thing to disqualify the governor at the tribunal and at the Court of Appeal. You and I know that Kano State is so volatile. Assuming the supreme court had not restored the decision, the mandate of the masses, there would have been so much bloodbath. So, for that, I give kudos to the judiciary.
Come down to Benue State, the overwhelming vote garnered by Rev. Fr Hyacinth Alia had been challenged in various courts but the Supreme Court, which is the apex court, affirmed the victory of Alia. That is one of the reasons why Benue has peace and you can see a lot of development ongoing in the state.
In the case of Nasarawa State, overwhelmingly, the masses voted for a political party different from the party that is in power now, but there was a legal mistake, there was a legal error, a legal blunder which was committed by the judges, the justices of the court of appeal and the tribunal. They did not decide some basic issues. So, when the matter went to the Supreme Court, the lawyers to the current governor stood on the area of what we call fair hearing.
When your matter has not been decided, fair hearing does not mean you must win. The fact that this matter was not decided, I raised this issue and it was not decided, that was the end and that’s what the court decided on. They said no, you did not decide the matter raised by this man as they want, that is just the sorrowful situation. It’s just like some deaths are caused by doctors while doing operation. You will think it’s your patient, it is the doctor, they will not tell you. That was what happened.
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Ordinary persons should know that it’s not only judges that make mistakes. Sometimes it’s what you present. For instance, let me tell you; biologically, you cannot donate sperm that is a female sperm and expect the woman to give you a boy. It is the same thing that happens in law; garbage in garbage out. So, if you give what is wrong to judges, you cannot expect what is right. Because in what we call adversarial system of justice, the judge is not supposed to go outside what you have presented to him or her. So, that is one area.
But there is one area where lawyers do what is proper and judges render what is improper. That is what we know as corruption and at that level, you have to challenge the decision and if the decision is challenged and the Court of Appeal does not change it and the Supreme Court does change it, we begin to cry.
Question: Looking at the issue in Benue, a lot of parents are crying. The students of the Benue State University were about to write exams and suddenly strike, the students are at home. So, what can you say on this issue to the lecturers, to ASUU and the university’s management for them to come to resolve the dispute for students to go back to class to complete their semester?
Ominyi: I call on all the parties in this matter to close ranks. I call on the governor of Benue State to wade into this matter. It is too early in the day to judge his administration but he should be respected for him to actually stay in office for some time so as to handle this matter.
Before, Benue State University used to do its programmes properly and softly without having any issues. So, having issues under this new administration like this now is not the best. But we know that some forces are out there to frustrate what a good person is doing so to say but that is not the best. Benue State University is our own, it is one of the most reputable universities in North Central Nigeria, so it should be handled like egg. So, if students who have prepared for examination, in fact, they were writing exams, some were about to conclude. So, with the strike now, some who are law students who are supposed to be mobilised to go to law school cannot go again. It will take another year or two years and other students who are supposed to be your mates in other universities will become your seniors and seniority is very important in Law. It is not like some of these other courses where you just do anyhow. But if it is in Law, seniority everywhere is very important.
So, they need to close ranks and I call on the governor to wade into the matter, and also, ASUU should try its best. The trouble we are having is that before, ASUU used to speak for the masses, but today, we are having a kind of… (pauses), I’m not talking about the Benue State University per se, but we are having a kind of student unionist activities that are not benefiting the masses.
I want to use this opportunity to also talk about NLC [Nigeria Labour Congress]. In all your questions you have not talked about NLC here. Before, NLC used to be a body that controls the actions of government. But today, NLC has gone to sleep. If NLC is awake, we would not be where we are, we would not be talking about the court, we would be talking about our leaders.
NLC and TUC, Trade Union Congress, the two bodies are supposed to work together to ensure that everything is in order. But when they call, for instance, ASUU members, to Aso Rock, they come out without smiling. But when they call NLC and TUC, what happens? They come out smiling, showing 32 or their own is even seventy-something. So, you can imagine it.
Whether you like it or not, there’s need for sanity in the system, there’s need for integrity in the system. So, that is what is supposed to be done. People should do the work that they are voted for. These people were voted to speak for the masses.
Now, when you come to the universities, you have student union government or student union as called in some places. But those people when they go to the VC, they receive money and they don’t speak for the mass of students. Now, they increase students school fees up to the level that it is becoming so outrageous. When I was at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Benue State University was paying the least amount of tuition all over Nigeria. But today, it has taken over in Nigeria now. Where is the trouble? Our leaders. When they give them one car, give them some money, they go and sell off the mandate of the people. The desires, the yearnings and aspirations of the people are thrown behind them. That is where the issue is.
Question: Thank you for granting us audience.
Ominyi: You are welcome.
