By Olalekan Bilesanmi

Senator Shuaibu Lawal was the Senate minority leader between 1999 and 2007. Presently he is the national secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria, (ACN). In this interview,Shuaibu speaks on issues pertaining to the opposition party.

How true is it that there is no goodluck in President Jonathan given the series of violence going in the country, the last one being the UN House Abuja bombing?

Senator Shuaibu Lawal

We cannot say there is no good luck because for sure God cannot make a mistake. What we have is what God has arranged for Nigeria and we don’t know what will come out of it. Our argument is the matter of capacity in leadership. The capacity I am talking about is that of the people that surround and advise the president. We must be sincere where we find ourselves in positions aimed at serving the people whose mandate we claim made it possible.

Intelligence gathering and transmission is at its lowest ebb, not because members of our intelligence community don’t do their work but merely because nobody heeds their advice. The security situation would not have been what it is today if politicians were honest with Nigerians.

The ACN is said to be present in two places in the country: the South-west and on the pages of newspapers. Do you agree?

That cannot be true. We have senators from the South-east, South-south and North-central. We also have members of the House of Representatives and of state assemblies from the South east, South-south, North central and North-east zones. So, how can anybody say we exist only in the South-west? Let whoever has that impression to check the official records which are no secret.

Your take on the Justice Salami/NJC saga

Well, regarding Justice Salami, I think what transpired was so far the highest level of impunity ever witnessed in the history of political leadership in this country. If we don’t exercise caution, it is capable of eating us all up. As far as I know, the constitution of Nigeria is very clear on the due process for removing and replacing of our justices.

I wonder who advised the president on this act of unconstitutionality, but we wait and see how the Senate will handle it when they resume from their recess. If members of the Senate like, they can make history like we did on the third term saga during our time. They should allow public opinion to direct their decisions.

Your party is said to be the most beneficiary of all the Appeal Court judgments as headed by Salami and which is why the party is in the vanguard of returning him to office as president of the court.

It beats my imagination how people think. Whenever justice is delivered justly, simply because it does not favour the government of the day,it is automatically considered abnormal and a lot of meanings are read into it. But where the court delivers judgment in favor of government, it is viewed as a normal practice.

Then why can’t people consider President Jonathan as the highest beneficiary of the efforts and struggles of the Action Congress of Nigeria during the days of Yar Adua, when attempts were made to deny him the opportunity of being acting president? Why is nobody talking about that, except what we got through due process of law? The court still remains the common man’s last hope no matter what anybody will say.

You are the secretary of the party but the party is yet to make any tangible impact in the north. Why?

No, we did make impact in the north as a party. The only thing, of course, we did not get any state in the north because the election was not free and fair. However, we are still in court in many states and you will be surprised about the outcome of the judgments. We are optimistic.

One of the reasons the party is still strong in the South-west and not other parts of the country some say is because it is a one-man party as personified by Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu. How true?

It is not true! I make bold to say that there is no party in Nigeria that is administered in the most democratic manner, where interference from outside it’s hierarchy and where every policy decision is the result of a meeting of one of it’s organs, like the Action Congress of Nigeria! Of course Bola Tinubu is a leader of the party and, for your information, there are other leaders who sit alongside him at meetings.

What people fail to realize is that the national chairman of the party presides over every meeting of the (ACN) including the national caucus where Bola Tinubu is a member. You may not believe that until the chairman recognizes Tinubu at caucus meetings, he will continue to raise his hand and even where he has contributed and would like to make additional contributions, the chairman usually tells him, “No Bola, I will not recognize you until others speak”, and Tinubu will respect the order from the chairman and remain silent until it comes to his turn to speak again.

Anybody who attends our meetings can testify to that. Many times Tinubu will present something at meetings, the chairman will reject, so how are we a one-man show? It is just lack of things to say about our party that makes people talk thrash.