By Bashir Adefaka

Prince Bola Ajibola (SAN), a one time Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice , in this interview says General Mohammadu Buhari will be missing the point if he dissipates all his energy fighting corruption and failing to provide basic needs to the people. Excerps:

The incoming government will be led by General Muhammadu Buhari and Yemi Osinbajo who was your senior special assistant when you were Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation for over six years. They are clear on fighting corruption. You want to say something on this?

I think I agree with Buhari on the need for killing corruption before it kills us but doing so should not hinder him from doing the main things that he is expected to do to make life better for Nigerians.

You will be judged by your performance and not by fighting corruption, Bola Ajibola tells Buhari

You want to shed more light on this?

You do not invest all your time battling only that corruption. If you do not take care of other necessities, the problems there will continue to breed corruption. For corruption to stop or be reduced you need to provide sound education, health, security, good roads, water and everything that will make life better. Those are things he should make his priorities including agriculture.

That is the purpose of governance.  You cannot come and tell us after four years that all you have done is your commissions of inquiry.  We will thank you for it and we will now say, “And what else did you do?

You said Nigerians voted PDP out because they decided that enough was enough on corruption.  Will probes not help to ascertain the level of corruption?

Commission of inquiry at this material time is good but is not the best.  We want to see something coming out of your government: good governance, providing the wherewithal for the benefit of everybody in the interest of the entire nation.  That is exactly what he should do at the moment.

Before, if you were able to come to judgment on the issue of those who had corruptly enriched themselves to the detriment of the nation, that in itself will be medicine after death.  That in itself will only show us those who stole our money and when the money was stolen but the whereabout of the money will be the question.  What was stolen 17 years ago had just been arranged for return.  Is that all we should wait for, another 17 years before getting back what had been stolen?

We are not saying you (Buhari) should not set up commission of inquiry but don’t make that your priority.  Your priority now is to give us the wherewithal to have a better life in this society because, at the end of the day, you will be judged by your performance in providing needs and not probes.  Yes a lot of people corruptly enriched themselves.  But they have spent the money.  They have foolishly, recklessly spent the money and it is nowhere to be found.  Some of this money has been siphoned away to Europe.  Where do we go from here? Do you think APC will still be there in another 17 years when we will possibly be recovering stolen money?

That would be determined by APC’s ability to perform….?

It is only performance that can keep you there.  Getting rid of corruption alone will not keep you there because the public will say, “Yes, we have heard you about that.  We know you are doing your best on it.  And so, what else?  We are sick, you cannot take care of us.  Our children are illiterates, they don’t have schools.  We don’t have food to eat and water to drink. You have not improved our agriculture. We have cars but no roads and our lives are insecure as people are being killed everyday by hoodlums, kidnappers and all that.  Crime is raging, you are doing nothing about it.?”

We are now running a developing democracy that could help us.  Do it well and we shall vote you back into power.  Mess it up and we throw you out.  The message is now clear and sound.  That is what has happened.

Trust between the President and his vice matters.  Here we have General Muhammadu Buhari and Professor Yemi Osinbajo.  What do you say to this?

Buhari and Osinbayo should work together and this is important.  They should prove critics wrong.   Yemi Osinbajo is someone that I see as having a unique incident of time, of working well with people regardless of their religions.  He worked very well with me as Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation and we never had any disagreement on religion.  Thereafter he worked very well with Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Governor of Lagos State. They never had issues on any ground. He worked very well with Adeboye at Redeem and that one was very well done too.

Now, he is going to work with Buhari, who incidentally is a Muslim like me and I think he will also work harmoniously with him.  Yemi is someone who believes in Almighty God regardless of the way you perceive Him.  He himself is a clergy man apart from being a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and a professor.  He is also a great. I am very sure that he will work harmoniously well with General Muhammadu.  I am very sure.

Sometimes it is not about the character of the President or the vice.  It is about the politicians who stand between them and who work with them.  What is your attitude to that?

I think Buhari will handle that because I know he is capable.  I am consciously optimistic that he will do so.