Hon Charles Anike is the national president of Eastern Union, a pro-democracy group in Nigeria. He speaks on how to check forgery in Nigeria, among other issues, in this interview.
What’s EU’s reaction to Chicago State University’s exposès about Tinubu’s certificate?
We feel so disappointed that only one man’s inordinate and selfish ambition can be so tolerated to further dent the already dented image of our country. Nigerian leaders should for once feel ashamed and also learn to know when to call it quit and give up for the sake of peace and national unity, otherwise, they will continue from one error to many more errors. You can see how one or two errors in Tinubu’s past life are expanding, exposing and connecting to many more of his hidden past. The most embarrassing thing now is how most of his political touts are still seen all over the media space committing and creating more damage of the image of the country in their efforts to defend and cover what is so glaring and that cannot be covered.
The Bible in Book of Isaiah 5 vs 20 says: Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
What lessons should be learnt about Nigerian judiciary vis-a-vis what transpired between Atiku and Tinubu in US court?
The Nigerian judiciary is still seriously on trial. Presently the judiciary has lost considerable credibility as a supposed sacred institution. Since the dark days of former President Muhammadu Buhari, the Nigerian judiciary was not only reduced to NOTHING but to mere tools for the political bandits to validate their civilian coups. Therefore, politicians will always kill and hijack the political processes and tell anyone that dare question their acts to GO TO COURT.
In other climes, the judiciary is usually an independent arm of the government that will expose and interrogate the excesses of the Executive and the Legislature, but not so in Nigeria. Therefore, there is serious and urgent need to review our constitution, to reflect the present realities. Funny enough the Executive and Legislative arms are usually ‘elected’ officials but are giving unwanted powers to appoint and screen judicial officials. Is that not crazy? This is the obvious reason that the Nigerian judicial officers are toys in the hands of fraudulent politicians.
Going forward there must be an established system whereby judicial officers shall be appointed by the Judicial Council. Just look back at how the American courts quickly attended to the Atiku suit against Tinubu over the certificate issue. There were no executive interferences or delays. It could not have been possible here Nigeria. Nigerian courts would adjourn and delay until justice is miscarried.
In Nigeria today, no serious person is interested in our court system anymore, rather we have all resigned to fate. There’s now the general notion that our judiciary which is supposed to be last hope of the common man is now the LOST hope of the common man.
Is Atiku right to have taken this matter thus far?
Atiku is very right to have gone the extra miles to further expose Tinubu’s lifestyle. Atiku has a serious stakes in the 2023 presidential election that took place on February 25. We all saw and heard the verdict of the presidential election tribunal, and of course every sane and educated person knew that all is not well with Nigeria.
Tinubu had acquired too much wealth over the years that he believes that he will always buy his way through, no matter who is on the way. We totally agree with Edward Snowden that: “When exposing a crime is treated as committing a crime, you are being ruled by criminals.” Those castigating Atiku and creating excuses and defending obvious fraud of Tinubu are themselves criminals. Anyone who finds reasons to support or defend fraudsters is not only capable of committing same, but a hidden criminal.
What do you think Tinubu should do to salvage our country?
We expect Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to toe the path of honour and RESIGN if he truly loves the country as he claimed. To salvage our country, he should damn the consequences and shun all those political bandits and hooligans that are collecting free money from him and encouraging him to move on to an unknown destination. I hope you know how he emerged to be president! Nigerians are still very bitter with him and his cohorts and seriously waiting for the Supreme Court judgment. And now with the recent exposure of his certificate irregularities, it’s only advisable that he honourably resign and go home to enjoy his old age. His past is hurting him badly. However, Tinubu cannot deny the mercies of God who in His infinite mercies covered his too many sins over the years, therefore Tinubu can show gratitude to God by resigning immediately and then maybe go further to do restitutions in any form he wishes. His continued resistance to this voice of reason may spell more doom and irreparable damage to our great country.
That some well educated people can still come on air to defend Tinubu in his Chicago State University scandal shows the level of decadence of our society, especially in terms of morals. Why would they continue to persuade the citizens to build on a faulty foundation?
It seems Nigerian leaders are serial forgers. How can this be salvaged?
There’s nothing like it seems; Nigeria’s present crop of leaders are serial forgers. Many of our present leaders and office-holders do not have genuine and verifiable certificates. If proper screening is carried out, heads will roll, especially in our civil service. The major reason for this is because our present political space has been hijacked and largely dominated by men and women with fraudulent backgrounds and school dropouts who now see political positions as the easiest way to loot wealth. And that’s why we will continue endlessly to discover more and more forgeries and discrepancies in the documents of our leaders. The only way forward is to revolutionize our institutions and weed out all the bad eggs in the system. To the forgers, nothing matters and nothing is at stake. They don’t believe in orderliness but rather they believe in cutting corners and shortcuts of which has become their acceptable way of life. To them everything goes.
Screening of election candidates: how do you rate Nigerian institutions in terms of being thorough?
Nigerian institutions have so far performed below average. Otherwise we will not be where we are today; we wouldn’t have all these scandals and embarrassing situations we witnessed in the past and the biggest mess we are currently battling with. It is obvious that the leaderships of those institutions usually compromise and certainly don’t even care to peruse through the documents submitted by politicians, who are already aware of the porous nature of our institutions and easily have their ways. Our citizens in foreign countries are now being subjected to another level of thorough screening and scrutiny of their documents submitted to the authorities of their schools and work places.
Our system has so collapsed to the extent that the leaders of those institutions saddled with the responsibilities of scrutinizing the documents submitted by the candidates don’t care, and to them it doesn’t matter even if it’s NEPA bills that are being submitted, so long as their hands are greased. It’s only because of the extent of decadence that many are still going on air and publicly advancing arguments about Tinubu’s academic qualifications and certificates and even encouraging that academic qualifications and certificates should no longer be a prerequisite to occupy political offices.
