Chuks Muoma is a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), former legal adviser of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and chairman of Igbo Lawyers Association (ILA). In this interview, he observed that political positions in Nigeria were held by failures in different professions. He spoke with Godfrey Ofurum in Aba. Excerpts:
How would you rate Nigeria’s democracy, from the First Republic till now. Have we made progress in our democracy?
What I see in Nigeria is not progress. I see retrogression, because we are going backwards and not forward. I must say that this is unfortunate. It has never been perfect when it comes to getting the right people in leadership in this country, but it is getting worse. As a young lawyer, when I came back from my studies in the United Kingdom, I was vibrant, politically. Soon thereafter, I realised that I could not be accommodated in Nigerian politics, because I abhor corruption, fought against it and spoke against it. When I realised that I was a minority voice and that my security was even been endangered, I quietly withdrew from politics to live a quiet life and I am currently enjoying that quiet life.
It may interest you to know that I was one of the foundation members of the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP). I moved on from NPP to the National Republican Congress (NRC) and became the old Aba Local Government Chairman of the NRC. By then Aba had one Local Government. As time goes on, I discovered that in Nigeria people go into politics, because they need material wealth and I was not impressed. It wasn’t the idea I got in my training back then in the United Kingdom that one should go into politics to make money.
I equally discovered that Nigerians go into politics, because they’ve failed in their respective professions. Look at your political class of today, who are they? How did they become leaders? What do you have in politics today, failed lawyers, failed engineers, failed doctors, failed administrators, failed accountants and all manner of failed people, who run into politics, because according to their respective views, it’s the easy way to make wealth. Since they’ve failed in their professions, there is only one option where they can gather to make easy money and that’s Nigerian politics.
I don’t want much money, but I’m satisfied. God has given me all I wanted and I live without anxiety. I had the temptation to such an unnecessary acquisition of wealth, but I rejected it. I’m a philosopher and at my age getting to 83, I’m not sick. To me, a happy life is a life of peace. I live without anxiety and fear. What can be better than that? Only with clean hands and positive thinking, you’ll always be happy. The best protection a man has is clean hands. People go into politics, because they are constantly hungry. Not hungry to eat in its real meaning, but they want too much. Their ambition for material wealth is insatiable. It’s unhealthy. They want abundance all the time. They don’t want to be comfortable or rich. They want to be massively rich with too many houses everywhere. The quest for stupendous wealth is the problem of Nigerian politics.
Tinubu is now the president of Nigeria; so far what’s your view about his administration; do you see hope for Nigeria with him in charge?
Well, I’ll always wish that Nigeria succeeds, because I want a better country, but let me reiterate that the problem of Nigerians is that they are never satisfied with what they have materially. What’s someone, the age of Tinubu doing in the Presidential Villa of a country, like Nigeria? Come on, are we really serious here? Just as I am now 82, going to 83, I’ll be nursing idea of taking up a political position, such as becoming a president? What will be my input? What can I offer that a younger person I know cannot do better? Even though I’m still intelligent, do my advocacy in court and have a sharp memory, what am I going to acquire power for, if not to get more wealth, considering the dirty politics that I see here?
Is it really necessary for someone of my age to be in power right now? Is that fair to our younger generation? What happens to playing advisory role? These are the questions Nigerians should ask themselves whenever this desire for power take over them.
What’s Tinubu doing in Aso Rock? Listen, active presidents don’t sleep. Their phones are regularly on and busy with calls. Can Tinubu endure it? What are we even talking about here? People will always refer to Joe Biden without noting that the United States have a cleaner society than ours. I am sure that Nigerians can assess the current government experientially. Nobody should tell anybody how the administration has been so far, because it is written all over everybody’s face, despite how much anybody tries to pretend. Nigerians don’t need much lecture to know the performance so far. I don’t know why people look at themselves and not realise that they are ageing and need to step aside. It’s just selfishness and greed and look at where it has handed everyone. We’re all feeling it.
From the party primaries to the main campaigns, he insisted it was his turn to rule, what do you make of that?
That slogan “emilokan” was enough to have stopped him in saner climes. Why would a man going into an election say it is his turn to rule? The impression he created was that it was prearranged election and that electorate have no choice or say. Is presidency a divine right that somebody will insist that the Nigerian presidency is his turn? This is the problem we have here. That campaign slogan should have stopped him in a country where things are normal so that he can explain to the people how and where they gave him that right or had an agreement that it’s his turn to lead them. I repeat emilokan should have disqualified Tinubu in a decent society, because it means that he is incapable of leading Nigeria and is only doing so by arrangement. You don’t rule a country by arrangement. Can you imagine people gathering to share leadership tenures among themselves with arrangements like “after me, it will be you and him”? What kind of a thing is that?
Seriously, the heavens will never forgive Buhari for the wrongs he did to this country. How can he go into an arrangement about the rulership and presidency of Nigeria, as if it is his personal property? He has ruled previously, as a Military Head of State, why would he not be satisfied with that? Let me see what he will do next. Let me see if he will go to Niger or Cameroon to rule them. Hasn’t he finished his rulership, is he not going to die like every other person one day? These are things some of the so-called politicians don’t think of. I don’t know why they are desperate for power when they are aware that they don’t know what to do with it when they get it.
Culled from BUSINESS DAY.
