‘Nobody can lure me into becoming AGF’

updated: Monday 16-06-2008

Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN)Ahead of the forthcoming NBA general elections slated to hold during the annual Bar conference in Abuja later in August, Chief Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), an aspirant for the presidency of the NBA, spoke with Dolapo Ekanade on his aspirations, current challenges before the Bar and why he cannot accept the post of the Attorney-General of the Federation. Excerpts:

HOW has the race for the 2008 general bar elections been?
We have been on the field for over a year now. We had enough time to prepare and we are still grateful to God that we have enough time to be on the road. Certainly, the preparation is in top gear, we are encouraged by our feelers while putting our trust in God. Preparations have been pretty smooth.

Unlike the last elections held at PortHarcourt in 2006 that featured the likes of Chief Chris Uche (SAN), Chief Funke Adekoya (SAN) and Chief Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) who eventually emerged as the winner , it seems only your name is being mentioned this year. Have you reached a consensus with other candidates?
It may be probably as a result of my campaign. Undoubtedly, we are everywhere, because I chose the right time to contest. Over decades, at the bar level, one had tried to build bridges across several zones in Nigeria.

I have friends in the North, East who, a couple of years back, had encouraged me to run and I have had to support friends from the North and the East.

Besides this, I have tried to see where we can build a consensus that would probably have put paid to merchandising our election and reduce the expenses that we all go through. For anybody who decides for instance, to support you now, a payback time would come. Probably that is the case. But until the nominations are closed, nobody is too certain as to how many of us would run for the election.

A vibrant Bar is a bedrock for the sustenance of democracy. What should members of the Bar and the nation expect if you eventually become the NBA president?
I have a seven-point agenda that I have listed. I already have it in what I call my convictions. I want to afford the bar a leadership that you have every confidence in, a leadership imbued with courage to prosecute our convictions so that at the end of the day, we would have a greater bar and we would be concerned about a better society through consistency and courage. The platform of my campaign is “prosecuting our convictions with courage.”

From your assessment of the outgoing executive, what are their successes and shortcomings?
The outgoing executive have done well. The important thing is that when you are running for an office, you fashion out what your platform would be. Olisa Agbakoba’s platform is “rebranding the NBA “ and he has done that. The man came in and decided that the NBA is going to have more sections and he is able to carry all of us along. Now we have several fora; women, young lawyers, corporate lawyers etc. The NBA now has a different image.

So he has done well on the platform on which he campaigned. Others are just to carry on. The bar association is a continuum. A president cannot solve all the problems, where he ends, another would step in and continue.

Speaking of young lawyers, a nagging issue is the poor wages paid lawyers in chambers. Even if we are quick to say that we borrowed our legal system and practice from the British, by now, we should have an independent system of doing things. How do you intend to address this?
You have raised a valid point. An issue for which I am quite passionate about, and if you look at my convictions, I have said that I am going to convene a summit to address this. For young lawyers, I have tried to explain to people that what we do here in my law office would be carried into a larger body. We can fashion out something different from what happened in England and what we are doing now.

We should encourage our senior ones to have a loose association with the young lawyers. As they work in your office, you will have to pay them a little higher than what you pay now and you must allow them to take their own briefs. They bring their cases, list it and discuss it before a conference in the office on how the matter should be presented in court and the steps to take. With that, you encourage young lawyers to build their own clientele. If at the end of the day they do well, you can admit them into a partnership or you can make them associates. Basically by the time they are leaving, they would have had their own clientele. But the reality is that no bar association will force any lawyer to pay his junior any fixed amount. We are going to have that summit. Practising fees that are paid must be channeled into better use, for the benefit of others.

The rule of law is much wider in scope than simply obeying orders of the court, do you think the doctrine could truly be operative in Nigeria?
You know what Dicey’s principle says on the rule of law. Supremacy of the law or equality before the law are fine theories. But we do not get there by a leap, it has to be gradual.

Obedience to court orders itself is a step in the right direction. If we say for one reason or the other, the government said Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello could not be tried, so that she is above orders, you can now accuse the government of placing her above the law, but when the lady was a fugitive from law, the prosecutor never stopped, they were ready that anytime she appeared she would be tried.

Governors have also been taken to court for looting and have slept in custody before securing bail. That has not happened in a long time, except in one or two instances when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was witch-hunting his perceived enemies. But President Yar’Adua has to change his stance and style of leadership.

At this stage, do we really need a revolution?
Some of the problems we have in this country is crime against the constitution. It’s like a civilian coup. If that can come from civilians and they just put themselves in office, the people should have reacted. But we like aping other nations. It is unfortunate that the Kenyan experience did not precede ours. If it had happened, I am sure Nigerians would be on the streets today.

If we can have a government borne out of true democracy, there might be a change. But if you have people forced on others, since they don’t win by your vote they can do whatever they like. Look at our past leaders who emerged in the 50s and 60s; the Awolowos, Azikiwes and Bode-Thomases were all graduates. In 2008, we now have a provision that qualifies even primary six leaving school certificate holders as eligible to contest.

It is wrong. We have wrong people in legislative houses. How can we think we can have a good government? They do not understand their roles. They do not appreciate what their duties are. We must amend our laws so that the minimum qualification would be a first degree. If we are impervious and care is not taken, a revolution would come up.

How effective can the antigraft agencies succeed in their fight against corruption, considering the manner of appointments of its headship. For instance, Faridah Waziri the new EFCC boss is allegedly connected to top shots and stood surety for a former governor who was in the EFCC’s custody, there seems to be a nagging suspicion that she could remain a viable tool for politicians?
I agree with the school of thought that says we cannot personify the leadership of the EFCC. If tomorrow, (God forbid) Nuhu Ribadu dies, won’t we have the EFCC? So let us rule out personifying that office. The next question to ask now is the caliber of people that should be there. One of the problems that we have in this country is lack of credible people. In the Senate, there are people who believe that they are there to serve the interest of the party or that the moment the president nominates somebody, nobody challenges his nomination.

This is the “kabiyesi” mentality that we have; the mentality affects all facets of our lives. Deference to age is a problem in this country. People use that to cheat, oppress and even carry out blue murder.

Let me take you back a little. When Harriet Miers was nominated by President George Bush as a justice of the Supreme Court, even the Republicans opposed it. By the time a poll was conducted, Bush had to withdraw her nomination. Here is qualified lady, who served first as an Attorney-General in Texas and who is reputed to be a brilliant academic. One of the reasons for opposing her nomination was her close association with President Bush. If it were in Nigeria, she would be appointed anyway. We have a subjective way of looking at things. The reason for appointing Waziri is subjective, if for instance the lady had been standing surety of those standing trial for corrupt practices (though she denied it), her appointment may be questioned.

Nobody has come out to prove all those allegations made against her. Nobody has applied for the certified true copies of the bail bond she allegedy signed and had it published in the papers. We need evidence and not just hushed speculations. If there is nothing against her, she can go ahead with her duties. The woman possesses intimidating credentials but if there are facts supported by evidence that could prove other wise, that could knock her off.

But the whole process of Ribadu’s removal to Waziri’s appointment has been criticized as being done outside the provisions of the EFCC Act...
(Cuts in ) Remember that Nuhu was a serving police officer. He was only a serving police officer before he was promoted by Obasanjo to the post of Assistant Inspector-General of Police. Since he is still a serving police officer, he could still be instructed to go for other courses or training. That means his position as police officer has changed. He had left, leaving a vacancy which Lamorde filled in an acting capacity before a substantial chairman was appointed.

Can we safely assume that your race to become the NBA president is not calculated for a final appointment as the Attorney-General of the federation in the nearest future?
I can tell you one thing and take it to the bank that all I want to do is to serve. Secondly, I do not want to be an AGF at any point in time. I do not need it. I have said it several years back that nothing can lure me back to take that position whilst I am president of the NBA..

For me the office of the NBA is more important than the AGF’s. As NBA president you head over 50,000 lawyers; you are like the alternate president of the country unless you do not know how to use the position. If you are president of the Bar, when you talk, people listen to you. It’s not possible I do that. I do not need it.